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THE BIOGEN SERIES, NO. 6. 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 



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PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. 



THE BIOGEN SERIES 

Consists of concise Essays on Live Questions of the day 
or of historical research in Religion, Science, and Philos- 
ophy, prepared by writers of the most eminent ability. 
Under the editorial direction of Dr. Elliott Coues. 
Published from time to time. A new volume just added. 

NO. 1. "BIOGEN:" A Speculation on the Origin 
and Nature of Life. By Dr. Coues. Now in its Sixth 
Edition. 

NO. 2. " THE D.EMON OF DARWIN." By the au- 
thor of " Biogen." Now in its Third Edition. 

NO. 3. "A BUDDHIST CATECHISM." By H. S. 01- 

cott. With Notes by Elliott Coues. Third American 
Edition. 

NO. 4. " CAN MATTER THINK ? " By an Occultist. 
With Introduction and Appendix by Coues. A New 
Edition. 

NO. 5. "KUTHUMI:" The True and Complete 
CEconomy of Human Life. A new Edition. Rewritten 
and Prefaced by Elliott Coues. 

NO. 6. " A WOMAN IN THE CASE." By Professor 
Coues. Washington, 1887. Second Edition. Now first 
added to the Biogen Series, with a new Introduction 
by Elisabeth Cavazza. 

JJ^'See also Publishers' Announcements at the end 
of this volume. 

THE OCCULT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
66 Boylston St., Boston, Mass. 



i( 



A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 



AN ADDRESS, 

Delivered at the Annual Commencement of the National 
Medical College, in the Congregational Church > 

of Washington, March 16, 1887, 



BY 

PROF. ELLIOTT COUES, A. M., M. D., Ph. D., etc 
SECOND EDITION, 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

ELISABETH CAVAZZA. 



BOSTON: 

THE OCCULT PUBLISHING COMPANY' 

No. 66 Boylston Street. 

1890. 



A x 



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Copyright, 
1890, 

By The Occult Publishing Company, 
Boston, Mass. 






Alfred Mudge & Son, Printers, 
Boston, Mass. 



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TO MY DEAR WIFE, 



MARY KMIIvY COUES, 



LOVE FOR WHOM INSPIRED 



ftfeis Cribufe to fbtal SSoman^O0b. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 

Title Hi 

Dedication v 

Contents vii 

Preface to the Second Edition ix 

Preface to the First Edition. Letter to the Faculty . . xiii 

Introduction. "An Interesting Problem," by Mrs. Elisabeth Ca- 

vazza ... xviii 

"A Woman in the Case" i 

Postscript. "Theosophy in the Colleges," by Mrs. Jennie E. 

Hicks 29 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



The reappearance of a college oration three years after its delivery is a 
phenomenon which would seem almost inexplicable. Such discourses are 
generally best which most become the occasion, and are even accentuated 
by their evanescence, like the bead of a brimming bowl, whose form is 
everything and whose substance is nothing. If, perchance, a living thought 
be caught in the web of words, and struggle for expression, it is drowned 
in applause as the speaker closes, to be known no more ; unless, like a 
fly in amber, it be embalmed in the written word which remaineth, and 
be held up to the light for the inspection of the curious. 

This second edition of my address gives occasion to reflect upon the 
reason why it has been required. On reading it over, I fail to find any- 
thing very remarkable, either in idea or expression. Women are now well 
to the fore in most pursuits of life, and they are graduating from colleges 
in many parts of the world. Persons of both sexes are rapidly outgrowing 
those orthodox creeds they inherited from the dark ages, and most intelli- 
gent people have pecked their way cleverly out of the shell of superstition 
which held them, like feeble chicks in the egg, whilst their minds were 
embryonic. So what I said is now conceded to be a fairly true bill of par- 
ticulars on the woman question, the educational question, and the ecclesi- 
astical question, respecting which no one can take umbrage who is not in 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 



person a rock of offence and a stumbling-block in the way of intellectual 
emancipation. It is only such crooked crab-sticks, gnarled and full of 
wind-shakes, who refuse to be corded up straight and square, and cannot 
be made to fit anywhere in an honest bundle of mental fagots. So they 
lie criss-cross athwart every line of progress, and crackle like thorns under 
a pot at a touch of the torch. 

That is the secret of the noise and heat which " A Woman in the Case " 
brought forth. It was nothing in particular that I said. It was simply 
that, for the moment, mine was the privilege to embody, personify, and 
give voice to the Spirit of Progress, — a spirit untarnished by a thought 
of consequences to self, undimmed by doubt, unhampered by fear, making 
straight its own way to its own goal with irresistible momentum. Of course 
baptism by fire makes things uncomfortably hot for those whose conserva- 
tism is chilly, and especially for those who are prejudiced in favor of 
aqueous immersion, which I believe our Baptist friends prefer. But I would 
advise no young lecturer who aspires to let in any light upon the night- 
time to " douse his glim " in the moist unpleasant morasses where theo- 
logical jack-o'-lanterns flicker only to mislead and bemire. Be his lamp 
but glimmering, let him trim it well, hold it steadily, and guard lest it be 
quenched by rude puffs of night air. So cherished, the feeblest dip will 
brighten and multiply its reflections, for light seeks light; and the time 
will come when these rays, focused in the crystal mirror of the mind,, 
may be brought to bear effectively upon any point, and flash intelligible 
signals. That mirror of the mind has a burning power when accurately 
adjusted; and it is never set at a more telling angle than when, for an 
instant present, it dispels the shadows that the past would cast upon the 
screen of the future. 

I understand inertness of mind as well as I do inertia of matter, and 
well know the friction to be overcome before a heavy corporation at rest 
can be set in motion, — especially when that body is one of received opin- 
ion in society, in science, or in religion. And in boring skulls, as in bor- 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xi 

ing cannon, friction develops much heat of feeling. The commotion is 
greatest among the human molecules who are set in their ways, and to 
whom new affinities and recombinations are more or less painful. But 
motion is nature's first law, as order is heaven's, and one must keep up 
with the procession of events, though the sky fall. In all the vital ques- 
tions of the day, I venture to affirm, the course of living thought and 
feeling is directly and distinctly onward and away from every body of super- 
stitious supernaturalism, which, embalmed in our ignorance, enshrouded 
in our fears, and inscribed with mottoes appropriate to our hopes, we 
revere as the Egyptians did their pussy-mummies of Bubastis, and with 
equal reason. These cats — once gods, then curiosities of antiquity — now 
sell by the ton for guano, and subserve an eminently useful purpose in the 
economy of nature. Yet they embodied creeds once as orthodox and awe- 
inspiring as any our latter-day churches can boast; and very likely history 
will repeat itself in this particular, if we give it time enough, and if 
there be found body enough in modern creeds, when pulverized, to serve 
as fertilizers. The exact historical repetition may be the more confidently 
anticipated, seeing that the divinity to whom these cats were sacred was a 
goddess, and that the present is distinctively an age in which woman, as 
human, receives just recognition in place of oppression; and Woman, as 
divine, receives due honor and homage instead of fetish-worship. 

Elliott Coues. 
1726 N Street, Washington, D. C, 

March 31, 1890. 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



LETTER TO THE FACULTY. 

Gentlemen, — An Address with which I had the honor of representing 
you at the recent Commencement of our College has already been followed 
by unforeseen consequences, and others may still be in store for us on the 
same account. 

On the one hand, the Faculty has passed a resolution to omit the cus- 
tomary publication of the annual addresses made on the occasion to which 
I refer, on the ground, as I am given to understand, of the objectionable 
character of my remarks, though the point of the objection has not been 
made clear to me. 

On the other hand, I have received numberless requests to make these 
remarks accessible to the public in book form. 

In this dilemma, I am thrown back upon my own judgment; and, with 
all due deference to contrary opinions, I cannot hesitate to put on perma- 
nent record that which I did not hesitate to say in public. 

I do not share the view of some, that my remarks were either untimely 
or out of place. Nor can I share for a moment the fear that their publi- 
cation will hurt the College. Quite the contrary. It is within the prov- 
ince of every educational institution like ours to lead public opinion, to 
some extent. We should not be found to wait servile upon its wake. 
Since we profess to be teachers of youth, I see no reason why we should 

(xiii) 



xiv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



not hasten the future by moulding the present sentiment of the community 
in which we live, presumably for the better. Or if not that, let us at least 
be found abreast of our own times. 

The occasion on which I spoke was itself the text which I took; and 
the topics I touched upon are living questions of the day, thrust upon us, 
not to be dodged or evaded. I spoke by the card of my own convictions, 
quite freely and in all sincerity, and I should advise no one to address an 
audience otherwise. Should I not, then, be found standing by what I said? 
My own prejudices and weaknesses are to be considered of no more or 
less account than those of other persons, even though one of these weak- 
nesses be a prejudice in favor of telling the truth, as I understand it. I 
am satisfied, moreover, that, underneath the set of shams, social, scientific, 
and religious, which we live amongst, there runs a deeper current of sound 
and serious thought and feeling, by no means counter to the sentiments I 
have taken the liberty of expressing. 

I am told that my offence consists less in what I said than in saying any- 
thing about religion; and it is added, as a clincher, that there is a clause 
in the charter of our College expressly forbidding any question of religion 
to be brought up by us. That is a curious state of the case, considering 
that man is first.of all and after all " a religious animal." It is as much as 
to say, that no form of religion we may be inclined to profess is open to 
discussion, criticism, or possible refutation. It is a clear case of prejudice 
and intolerance — just what I have attacked. It may have fitted in with 
the times when our charter was granted; but that was a good while ago, 
in the dark ages, when to satirize any superstition which sheltered itself 
under the name of Christianity was sacrilege. Since then we have pro- 
gressed to a point where such a clause becomes a relic of barbarism so 
objectionable, that some change in our charter would seem to be needed. 
No educational institution should be committed to a creed which forbids 
the most searching scrutiny of the basis of those religious beliefs which are 
nearest and dearest to us all. The fact that we depend for our patronage 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. XV 

upon the sentiment of a so-called Christian community should deter no 
one of us from challenging Christianity as practised among us, if any 
one of us knows, as I do, that it is pretty poorly practised, or if any one of 
us thinks, as I do, that it is not less questionable than other forms of faith 
supposed by ignorant persons to be fixed. Otherwise, we should be con- 
victed of seeking to profit by upholding views which we do not seriously 
entertain. It were far better, in my opinion, to surrender our charter, if 
it cannot be amended in this particular. 

I beg you also to observe, that if I have offended in this instance, I may 
plead in extenuation that it is my first offence. Whereas, such a provision 
as I am now informed exists in our charter with reference to religious 
matters has been violated by others many times; that is to say, as often 
as, at our annual Commencements, our exercises have been opened with a 
prayer and closed with a benediction by a clergyman of some orthodox 
denomination. This is certainly our habitual attitude before the public on 
such occasions. It is our official recognition and indorsement of some 
particular form of worship, agreeably with the views of the gentleman 
whom we invite to conduct these services which represent us as a body 
corporate before the Throne of Grace, — our charter to the contrary 
notwithstanding, which forbids us to be religious officially. It being thus 
a clearly recognized propriety of such occasions for one speaker to bring 
up the subject of religion by praying in public from his own platform, I 
see no impropriety on the part of another speaker in continuing the same 
topic from a different stand-point. Where any great principle is involved, 
it is small to stop to see on which side one's bit of bread is buttered. If it 
be right and proper for one person to tell God what he thinks in sight of a 
great audience, can it be wrong or improper in the sight of God for 
another person to tell the same audience what he, too, thinks? It is not a 
question, which was the better address on our last occasion — the one 
that was made to God and the audience, or the one that was made to the 
audience only. And even if such be a question, it cannot yet be answered, 



XVI PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



because only the audience has been heard from on the subject thus far. 
It should make us quite tolerant, I think, of one another's religious views 
to reflect : that God may possibly disapprove of public praying as strongly 
as the biggest bigot who heard me the other night can disapprove of my 
public addressing. If scriptural authority on this point be reliable, no less 
august a personage than the Founder of Christianity, the Son of God him- 
self, has expressly enjoined upon us the method of praying which is most 
acceptable to his Father. In my humble judgment, furthermore, any 
prayer that is worthy of the name is too sacred a thing, and the real 
occasions thereof are too solemn, to befit the festivities of a college Com- 
mencement. If any such view of the case as this be reasonably tenable, by 
all means, then, let us abide by our charter, quietly ignoring the late 
unpleasantness, and prudently waiving all reference to religion in future. 

Nevertheless, gentlemen, I am deeply sensible of my error, and quick to 
recognize the professional etiquette of the situation, which leaves me but 
one course to take. It is against the best interests of the College for the 
Faculty to differ on any point of vital consequence. I have these interests 
so much at heart that no possible consideration of personal advantage can 
weigh with me for a moment against them. Believing, as I do, that it 
would benefit the College if some such ideas as I advanced in my address 
should prevail, to the exclusion or extinction of those counter-ideas which 
seem now to prevail, I must maintain my position, even in the face of your 
resolution to suppress the publication of my remarks, and against all your 
friendly warnings and entreaties. I cannot make my decision retroactive, 
and thus exonerate you from having been party to the affair of the other 
night; but I beg thus publicly to relieve you of all further responsibility in 
the matter. Mine alone is the blame, if any there be; if any harm is to 
come of it, let it come on me alone; if any good should possibly result, 
let that reward be yours. The consequences to myself concern no one 
else. I fully appreciate the kindness with which you promptly declined to 
hear of my resigning, when I offered to do so; and it cuts me to the quick 



PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



XV11 



to sever relations which for many years have been intimate, cordial, and to 
me delightful. But I forfeit my right to these relations if I persist in 
views at variance with yours, when to maintain them is to embarrass my 
colleagues. I therefore beg to place my resignation at your service again. 
With all confidence in the prosperous future of the College, and with warm 
personal regard for every member of the Faculty, I remain, 
Sincerely yours, 

Elliott Coues. 



1726 N Street, Washington, D. C, 
March 31, 1887. 




INTRODUCTION. 



BY MRS. ELISABETH CAVAZZA. 



AN INTERESTING PROBLEM. 

One of the most acute, brilliant, and reasonable discourses in praise of 
woman and her powers, is that which led to severance of the relations 
between Prof. Coues and the National Medical College at Washington. 
The address is somewhat radical in its thought, and lyric in its inspiration, 
and these qualities are not academic. The reasons of their dissatisfaction 
were not made plain by the Faculty to Prof. Coues; and indeed, were, 
perhaps, felt by them rather as an impalpable though weighty atmospheric 
pressure of tradition. At all events, the usual publication of Commence- 
ment Addresses was omitted that year, and Prof. Coues was later obliged, 
in response to numerous personal requests, to attend, himself, to the publi- 
cation of his discourse. The technical point upon which the objection to 
his address was founded, was that the charter of the College forbids any. 
reference to religious questions. This point he very cleverly parried in 
his courteous, ironical, and thoroughly good-tempered letter to the Faculty, 
suggesting that the prayer and benediction, habitually pronounced at Com- 
mencement exercises by some orthodox clergyman are in disobedience to 
the charter, " which forbids us to be religious officially "; and pertinently 
asking, " If it be right and proper for one person to tell God what he 
thinks in sight of a great audience, can it be wrong or improper in the 
sight of God for another person to tell the same audience what he, too, 

(xviii) 



INTR OD UC TION. XIX 



thinks?" But this agile defence of Prof. Coues was merely the prelude to 
the renewal of his resignation already offered and not accepted, immedi- 
ately on the occasion of the dissatisfaction of the Faculty, and expressed 
in terms at once dignified and affectionate. 

This address upon the theme, " A Woman in the Case," was in reference 
to the conferring of a degree upon the first woman graduate of the 
National Medical College. Taking this diploma as a text, Prof. Coues con- 
siders the capabilities, the scope, the present position, and the future of 
women. It is agreeable to find that he does not emphasize the theory of 
woman suffrage, a point which has been disproportionately and rather 
coarsely insisted upon in the propaganda of feminine progress. Whether 
women also, or only men, possess the ballot as a birthright, or whether the 
vote be merely a weapon of defence given by republican jurisprudence as 
military rule provides for th* bearing of arms — in which case the ballot 
is a political function about which talk of divinely accorded and innate 
claim is foolish; whether the admission of women to the polls and to 
office-holding be a question of right and wrong, or of expediency and non- 
expediency — with these differences of opinion, fortunately, the present 
review need not concern itself, since Prof. Coues does not dwell upon 
them. 

His theme is less, What can woman have ? — than — What can woman 
be? Intrinsic progress is, indeed, limited only by the will and the force 
of the individual, while external acquisition is contested by all kinds of 
active and passive adverse conditions. Women are apt to mistake for 
prejudice and oppression directed against them as women, the difficulties 
which arise from competition, or injustice, or carelessness, and to which 
men are equally subjected in the struggle for existence. When the disad- 
vantages are obviously because of her sex, a woman will do well to con- 
sider whether she has had the training and is prepared to fulfil the require- 
ments of her task in the manner which would be expected of a man in 
the same position. She will also do well to examine whether her discontent 



XX INTR OD UCTION. 



is divine, the pricking of wings which will bear her upward, or the uneasi- 
ness which is the effect of a sub-consciousness of present inefficiency or 
inadequacy. Whenever a woman proves by practical action her capacity to 
do a thing thoroughly well, she is usually not merely allowed but also encour- 
aged to do it. If she receives less pay than a man, that disparity is most 
often to be attributed to the unfortunate balance of supply and demand, 
inequalities which can be remedied, not by immediate complaint or legisla- 
tion, but gradually by social economy and by course of time. 

But one birthright is surely and inalienably hers, as it is that of every 
creature, to attain to her highest possibilities of spirit and action. " Each 
thing," says Dante in the " Convito," " is virtuous in its nature, that does 
that to which it is ordained." If one asks, " To what is woman ordained? " 
the reply of the propagandists of the rights of woman is, — and the 
answer appears curiously contradictory of the modern tendency to sub- 
division of labor, — Everything ! She will leave to men no specialty; she 
demands that the whole field of action be open to her. And while these 
contentious women are beating upon the fences, the gates stand wide 
open. For it is not the intelligence or force of woman as compared with 
that of man, but the power and will of each individual of the human race 
that is to make or mar their several fortunes. A woman may do what she 
can, yet she cannot afford not to study her limitations, general and 
personal, since it is certain that, other things being equal, work is best 
accomplished when free of the friction of inaptitude and the resistance of 
disinclination. 

, To return to the text of Prof. Coues's discourse. His experience as 
instructor in the National College at Washington has been, that no dis- 
advantageous change in quality and quantity of work, or in the decorum 
of his classes, has ensued upon the admission of young women. This is 
m practical support of his theory that knowledge is good for all, and that 
any kind which both halves of the world may not share, is evil. He affirms 
tjggjk^o.wledjgei^ be too precious a possession to be reserved for men, 



INTRODUCTION. XXI 



too sad a burden to be borne by them alone. He believes that women 
who have ability and ambition for the law, the pulpit, medicine, for any 
art, handiwork, or business, even for political economy and state-craft, 
should not be debarred on account of sex. He considers any discrimina- 
tion against women as a relic of barbarism. Precisely here, it may be 
permitted to recall the sentence of the apostle, which may be old-fashioned 
doctrine, but is not the less pertinent, to the effect that many things are 
right which are not expedient. Each woman must judge for herself the 
balance of profit and loss to her own essential womanhood in the adoption 
of one of these forms of employment. In the so-called barbarism which 
restricts feminine liberty, and denies to woman certain responsibilities 
which require great physical or mental effort, publicity, contact with the 
coarser aspects of life, there exists also an element of reverence for her 
more delicate and subtile nature, her quicker sensibilities and finer instincts. 

" For woman is not undeveloped man, 
But diverse," 

as Lord Tennyson has noted in his Princess — a poem open to criticism, 
perhaps, as to its literary design, but which meets the feminine problem 
of his century with singular tact and wisdom. 

It is true that there are men vibratory as wind-harps, and women of 
nearly anaesthetic fibre, but the general trend of the masculine nature may 
be defined as strength, and that of the feminine as fineness. There remains 
always the question whether it be sound economy to employ a Damascus 
blade to cleave wood, when its special gift is to sever the floating veil of 
Saladin. To most women, the impalpable tribute of privilege and of pres- 
tige is more acceptable than undistinguished comradeship with men. They 
are conscious that in this delicate remoteness is enshrined their essential 
power. 

Prof. Coues well observes that in any given case the place which 
woman may take and hold determines the place which that community 



XX11 INTR OD UCTION. 



takes and holds, and is the measure of its civilization. According to him, 
the chief barriers in the way are three : religious intolerance, scientific 
insolence, and social tyranny — "a triple-headed Cerberus set to guard 
woman." His summary of the evil effected and the good denied by these 
three malign forces is brilliant, audacious, and eloquent. 

It must be acknowledged that a woman honestly conscious of her own 
failings, which are also those of her sisters in Eve, and highly appreciative 
of the distinctively masculine virtues, — as a genuine woman ought to be, 
— will experience a little awe and alarm at the credit of half-divine gifts 
which a good man, as he should, accords to women. There is a certain 
just humiliation in meeting face to face one's own image mirrored in the 
faith of another. Paradise will be found again on earth when men and 
women have no longer fear of each others' ideals. 

In reading the nobly enthusiastic discourse of Prof. Coues, a woman 
finds herself enveloped in a warm atmosphere, fragrant with incense. The 
thesis appears to be one of those intense and complete tributes to femi- 
ninity, such as now and then in the world's history a thoroughly virile mind 
has been inspired to give, shedding upon women in general the rosy light 
of the altar-flame of a sole goddess. So the Knights of the Round Table, 
vowed to one lady, defended all; so St. Augustine — contrary to the prac- 
tice of other fathers of the church — wrote good things of women, for the 
sake of his pious mother. And the crowning example of such honor to 
the universal in an individual womanhood, is the Divina Commedia, 
wherein Dante wrote of Beatrice " that which was never said of any 
woman." 

A certain allowance must be made, in Prof. Coues's address, for the 
apotheosis of woman which is one of the tenets of modern theosophy, 
under whose banner the professor is enrolled. He is not, however, a man 
to be bound to unquestioning subservience to any code of opinions; and 
his strong, clear sense, his honesty and keen logic, would be apt to make 
it difficult for such theories as might come into conflict with those qualities. 



INTRODUCTION. xxul 



The conclusion of his address is in accord with its animating temper of 
liberality and hopefulness. He possesses in no small degree that ■magma- 
tion of the soul which is faith -the only spiritual condition upon winch 
Ln be based present action or expectation for the future. It must also 
be noted that he expressly defines the differentiation of the feminine nature 
and observes that the woman's swifter perceptions and instinct beyond 
reason can greatly avail in co-operation with the purely scientific thought 
and experiment, the material collection of facts and of forces which are 
more naturally the contribution of men to the solution of the problems of 
humanity, to that true theosophy which begins with the fear of the Lord 

Prof Cones is too judicious to wish to assume the office of prophet » 
to the particulars of the next phase of progress in the science of life 
■•What we will to do to-day," he says, "it is that ushers in the morning 
(air or foul for us every one. . . . Only one thing is safe to say : men 
never act alone. They cannot. They may think they do, but they do nob 
The only safe prediction is this: Whatever the case may be, there will 
always be a woman in the case — God bless her!" 

The question not nnnaturally arises, Why is it that the femmme 
demonstrations of independence and of revolt from subjection to men have 
been able to change but little the actual condition of women? For wo 
reasons, perhaps, one of which is highly creditable to them: that a health- 
fully constituted woman, sound of nerves and sweet of na tare, knows in- 
stinctively that her vocation is for the family, and that she ,s ^t when 
she can serve lovingly, a priestess of the hearth-stone of home. If destiny 
or her own choice deny her this, she does well to employ he powers m 
art or learning, or business; but she will merely have made the best of 
her' circumstances in accepting an avocation in place of her vocation 
Therefore, the most complete type of womanhood perpetuates itself in he 
ideals handed down from mother to daughter. At the same time the 
placid matron, with no thought beyond her babies and her housekeeping 
will not be able to meetthe exigencies of that companionship of mind and 



X XIV INTR OD UC TION 



spirit with her husband and her children which is the finer and more real 
union of the family. No development of heart and intellect can be too 
great to be useful for her, in its extent, only in its direction. And if she 
has had strength and occasion to learn an art or a profession, her knowl- 
edge will be sure to come into use, more or less practically. 

The other cause of the failure of woman to revolutionize her place in 
society has been cleverly defined by the critic De Renzis as exaggeration. 
" Woman," he writes, " perhaps on account of a physiological fact, due to 
her constitution itself, exaggerates everything, and sets it out of just pro- 
portion. . . . All are agreed in saying that good, she is sublime, and bad, 
the worst." " Exaggeration," he repeats, " has always put an end to the 
progress of public opinion in favor of the fair sex. When the theory has 
made its way, the application has succeeded in spoiling it." 

And yet De Renzis everywhere urges cordially the progress of woman 
and the development of her whole nature and capability. This noble lib- 
erty will involve no shock to society, or to the family wherein exists her 
intimate supremacy. He concludes with a clever epigram — very comfort- 
able and not less veracious — " Women, like water, break forth only in 
imprisonment; left free, little by little she will find her own level." 

A clearly definite and not uninstructive cycle of feminine effort may be 
studied in Italian history, during the time immediately antecedent to the 
Renaissance, and in the course of that brilliant period itself. It has, too, the 
advantage of distance of time and of place, the impersonality of the past. 

In the days of the troubadours, women were at once enslaved and the 
objects of perfunctory and unreal adulation. Later, when Italy was dis- 
tracted by its minute subdivisions of hostility, State against State, city 
against city, and family against family, the women, left unprotected in 
the absence of their fathers and husbands gone to the wars, took shelter in 
the convents. There, in forlorn and enforced leisure, began the studies 
which developed into the passion for learning and art which, afterward, 
gave to Italy a marvellous constellation of accomplished women. 



INTR OD UCTION. XXV 



The scholarly Gregorovius has noted that the idea that mental cultiva- 
tion is unfeminine, never occurred to the Italian mind, but was purely of 
Germanic origin. Even the " viragos " were so called with no shade of 
reproach. Little maidens of the Renaissance were vowed to the muses, 
as in the mediaeval times they had been dedicated to a saint and a cloister. 

The education of a girl was identical with that of her brother. 

This brilliant field-day of the feminine intelligence did not dawn un- 
heralded. The first recorded complaint of woman against man in general 
was filed by a Florentine lady of the thirteenth century, whose name has 
been handed down to us only as "The Accomplished Damsel." Her 
scorn is verbal : — 

" Hence would I have no husband and no lord, 
Nor stay within the world by will of mine. 
Remembering that all men are clothed with evil, 
Each one of them I hold in great disdain." 

Yet we shall be obliged to consider that her case went by default, since 
when Monte da Firenze made declarations of love to her, she accepted 
them in verse not less enthusiastic than her previous effort. The first note 
of woman's war was given with no uncertain sound by Leonora della 
Genga, who emerged from the crowd of erudite and devout and sentimen- 
tal dames of the fourteenth century, and announced her views in a sonnet 
of which — let the reader accept the assurance — the following is but a 
pallid translation : — 

" Give over, men, to say and to declare 
That nature nothing but the man intends, 
And that to form the feminine she lends, 
Except against her will, but little care. 
What envy takes your minds, what cloud is there 
That your intelligence not comprehends 
How all her strength on woman she expends 
And gives to you of glory a lesser share? 



XXVI IXTK OD UCTIOX, 



To wield the sword do women know right well, 

To govern empires; yea, and furthermore 

They know the road which leads to Helicon. 

In everything you are inconsiderable, 3 ' ^ ■ !I1 rr. [ :i ' 

Ye men, compared to them. No man hath power 

To take away the prize or crown they have won." 

Boccaccio refers to this sonnet in his treatise De Claris Mulieribus; and 
under the auspices of the courtly teller of tales, was begun the intellectual 
development of Italian femininity. A gentle throng of poetesses imitated 
the songs of Petrarca; the learned ladies studied law, theology, and phi- 
losophy — the latter branch including also medicine. Later, " the human- 
ities," Greek and Latin, were added to the list of studies. Bitisia Gozza- 
dini was Laureate of Law. Novella and Bettina Andrea prepared briefs 
and instructed classes in jurisprudence, — the former with a veil drawn 
over her beautiful face, not to distract the attention of the students. 
Galeana Saviola defended her husband, the Senator Brancaleone, from 
false accusations, before the public council of Bologna. Caterina of 
Siena, by force of religious genius and of nervous crises, was powerful 
with popes and rulers. Eleonora Arborea defended the rights of the 
people in the third part of the island of Sardinia, inherited from her 
father; and Battista Malatesta, wife of the governor of Pesaro, ruled with- 
out recourse to caprice or intrigue. Veronica Gambara wrote sonnets and 
insured the place and prosperity of her sons. Vittoria Colonna appeared 
the ideal woman of the Italian Renaissance, passionately faithful to her 
love, devout, poetic, and companionable to such men as Michael Angelo. 

Every phase of the modern agitation has its parallel in the period of 
Italian history which has just been rapidly recalled; of these may be also 
remembered the curious apotheosis of woman which was a theory of the 
cinque-cento, and which offers, perhaps, some parallel points with that 
worship, already noted, which is among the most emphasized tenets of 
modern theosophy. The feminine apotheosis announced in the sixteenth 



INTR OB UC TION. xxvii 



century was solemn and clamorous. A great army of paladins arose to 
defend and glorify woman at all costs. Her equality of rights was pro- 
claimed by the milder propagandists, while others called her the most 
perfect of creatures, and absolutely superior to man. Francesco Coccio, 
of Venice, stated in his treatise of the " Nobility of Women," written in 
a style whose inflations and affected graces it would be impossible to 
render in nineteenth-century English : that " Adam signifies earth, and 
Eve is interpreted life ; and as life is worthier than earth, so is woman to 
be placed before man." And he claims, in conclusion, to have fully 
proved^thata'/WQifthciis possessed by woman above man, from religion, 
nature^ hiHiikn:<law!, and from various authorities, reasons, and examples." 
D'orhenichi arid Bruno da Pistoia wrote similar apologies for woman, quite 
in the style of some of the modern writings, which a critic has cleverly called 
" Theosophomorical," and which, by the way, must not for a moment be 
confounded with the brilliant and generally moderate thesis of Prof. 
Coues. 

The fashion fairly set in Italy, it was followed by such writers as Speroni, 
Ruscelii, Cardinal Pompeo, Colonna, while Ariosto, Molza, Bandello, 
Giraldi, and others sang the praises of one or another eminent woman. 
Toward the middle of the sixteenth century, the apotheosis of woman 
reached its climax, when by decree of the Academy of the Dubbiosi of 
Venice, Giovanna d'Aragona was called divine, and there was raised to 
her the " Temple built by all the most gentle spirits, and in' all the princi- 
pal languages of the world." These demonstrations, however, had more 
or less opposition from conservative minds. 

Innumerable examples of women, eminent in painting, in sculpture, in 
all professions, warlike chatelaines, and patriotic wives and mothers, might 
be cited; but enough has been said to show how complete was the oppor- 
tunity given in course of the centuries of the Renaissance for Italian 
women to emancipate themselves, to fill the ranks of professional life, to 
become the rivals of men in every department of society. One would 



xxviii INTRODUCTION. 



expect to find in the united free Italy of to-day an extraordinary element 
of femininity, basing itself on the traditions of the cinque-cento, and lead- 
ing the movement in favor of woman's rights. On the contrary, the ideal 
of the Italian woman is extremely feminine, less vivacious than the French, 
less adventurous than the English, less independent and audacious than 
the American. Of course, the problem of woman is discussed with inter- 
est in Italy, and feminine opportunities are larger than they were a few 
years ago. But it is not probable that a new Leonora della Genga will 
arise to lead a chorus of feminine malcontents. 

After all, the lesson of this historical excursus is not very apparent, 
except so far as we may be led to believe that as soon as each succeeding 
freshet of feminine progress bursts its imprisoning dikes, it will find its 
level and its flood to be for the enrichment, not the confusion, of the world. 



Portland, Me., Aprils, 1890. 




A WOMAN IN THE CASE. 5 



Pursuant to the Programme of the Sixty-fifth Annual Com- 
mencement of the National Medical College, held in the 
Congregational Church of Washington, March 16, 1887, 
Prof Coue/said, — 
Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentlemen : — This is the 
Sixty-fifth Annual Commencement of the National Medical 
College; which means, among other things, that it has 
taken* the Medical Department of Columbian University 
more than threescore years to grow wise enough to secure 
what was needed -a woman graduate. Now it only takes 
a woman three years to secure what she may desire— a di- 
ploma. Whence I infer, that my respected colleagues as 
well as myself have been taking a lesson in Theosophy. On 
which subject I will speak for the hour, at the hazard of 
fanning into flame every spark of smouldering opposition to 
free-thinking and out-speaking there may be within reach of 
my breath. 



'A WOMAN IN THE CASE. 



There should be a great moral lesson in this occasion, if 
one could be clever enough to find it out. What is the 
reason I ask, why two generations of estimable gentlemen 
should have hugged the notion that this University could do 
better without than with the aid and countenance of woman > 
If that were true, a college would be the only thing of the 
kind extant -quite unique in its way. And since it has 
proven to be untrue, what is there about this third genera- 
tion of professors that has set them to teaching young ladies 
as well as young gentlemen? Whatever it may be I take 
it for a healthy sign of the times -a significant straw that 
points, like a thousand others, to the deathless Spirit of 
Progress, bound though she be to the body of every preiu- 
dice menaced though she be by the mediocrity of the ^mul- 
titude, cursed though she be with the curse of the common- 
place. 

To go back no more than ten years - during which I have 
had a voice in these matters -I well remember, when I 
began to lecture, that a number of ladies who wished to 
learn what I professed to teach, asked if they might not 
attend. Certainly," I said ; <• I should be delighted to have 
you do so, but of course I am authorized to speak only 
for myself. Better make formal application to the Faculty 
and let us see what can be done." 

Now I confess that I was half-hearted about it at the time, 
and that I gave my would-be pupils only lip-service. Yet 



A WOMAN IN THE CASE: 



the rest of the Faculty did no better. Those ladies came for 
a while, during the time their application was pending, only 
to find themselves tolerated by young gentlemen who knew 
no better, and by older ones who ought to have known bet- 
ter, till their application was refused. The Faculty had held 
a meeting about it, and no doubt the Trustees also. We had 
hum'd and haw'd, and twiddled our thumbs, and squirmed 
in our seats, as men do when they do not know what to do. 
Every one of us was in favor of the higher education of 
women, and so forth, and so forth. But, when it came to 
the vote, the vote was " No." And I suspect that for some 
little time thereafter the rest of the Faculty were as busy as 
myself in framing polite excuses — in cultivating the art of 
polite lying. 

" But " — what was the matter with our fair applicants ? 
Nothing. What was the matter with the Faculty ? Nothing. 
What was the matter with the Trustees ? Nothing. But — 
the time had not come for the college to catch up with the 
times. And yet, will you believe me, I am speaking of less 
than ten years ago. 

Well : the sessions came and the sessions went, as they 
had done for half a century, till one fine day the door-bell 
rang again — this time with no uncertain sound. It rang as 
if whoever pulled it had a right to the handle. For a fig- 
ure of speech, I may say it was only the postman of the 
times, who brought a letter for the Faculty. That letter 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 



was stamped " Public Opinion." That letter was signed 
"Progress." And Progress demanded of Prejudice to be 
informed why in Washington one half of the population 
could study medicine and the other half could not have the 
same privilege ; what was the matter with half the people 
in the city, that they should stand in the way of the other 
half ; and what was the matter with the other half, that they 
should thus be withstood ? Could it be because those were 
men, and these were women ? Or what, then ? 

Very simple questions these, that the college could not 
answer. A very civil service examination that the college 
could not pass. So the Faculty asked the Trustees. The 
Trustees did not know, and they asked the Faculty to ask 
one another. Not one of us could give the rest any satis- 
factory answer. And then the alacrity with which we in- 
vited both halves of the whole city to sit at our feet and 
become doctors showed that we had done with at least one 
prejudice, and were quick to respond to Progress backed by 
Public Opinion. 

Yet I do not observe that any convulsion of nature has 
attended the admission of women to our college upon the 
same footing as other students, subject to the same require- 
ments and restrictions, entitled to the same rights and privi- 
leges as the rest of the class. Not even an earthquake, 
nor ever a sign from a Wiggins that the earth is going to 
quake. On the contrary, lectures have gone on just the 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 5 

same ; the class has steadily increased in number and im- 
proved in quality ; the decorum of the class-room had never 
been violated before, and has not been since ; study in the 
clinic has been not less successful ; work in the chemical 
and physiological laboratories and in our anatomical " Blue- 
beard's closet " has been done as usual ; the quizzes have 
sharpened the students' wits as they did before ; and the 
terrors of the green-room have been faced down just as they 
used to be. Commencement-day has come again, punctually 
on time, and this pleasant evening is passing away according 
to the printed programme. 

What need, then, to have told this little story out of school 

— what need now accentuate a drama already played ? Yes 

— enacted in colleges of most of the great cities of Europe 
and America long before it claimed the boards of the capital 
of the United States — this abolition of odious, because unjust, 
discrimination against the sex of woman, in the matter of 
her acquiring knowledge enough to enter one of the learned 
professions ; pleased as I am to observe such result accom- 
plished, I am still more puzzled to discover — why it took so 
long. 

Was it that our forefathers objected to the education of 
women in medicine, and had the power to enforce their ob- 
jection ? Or was it that our foremothers were in such a state 
of subjection that they could not insist upon their right to be 
educated as well as men ? If the former, then men are wiser 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE: 



in our generation than they were before. If the latter, then 
women are better off than they used to be. And in either 
case there has been progress in the right direction, of which 
we may all be proud. 

For I assume it to be an axiom that knowledge is well — 
a good thing for any one to have. Knowledge of no kind is 
good for half the world only j any kind which both halves may 
not share is bad. That wretched saw, which says a little 
knowledge is a dangerous thing, applies but to the plenteous 
ignorance which a little knowledge implies in its possessor. 
Real knowledge is too precious a possession to be reserved 
for our sex. True knowledge is too sad a burden to be borne 
by us alone. Great knowledge is a weapon too potent to be 
intrusted only to the hands of men. All real true knowledge 
begins when we begin to know ourselves ; and none is greater 
than the knowledge of self, at once the starting-point and the 
goal of the human race we run. For nothing real and true 
exists for any one of us save that, the reality and truth of 
which is already in us ; and the realization of what is true 
within us is the utmost possible human achievement. Seek 
not abroad for that which you would possess, but find it within, 
or find it never ! If the fear of the Lord be the beginning of 
wisdom, — the beginning of that spiritual Gnosis for which all 
human knowledge is but a preparation, — then whoso is lord 
of self has nothing else to fear. To " know thyself " is the 
key to the Godhead. 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 



What easier, earlier steps may one take in the direction of 
this knowledge than to learn the construction and the working 
of the natural body we inhabit ? The grossest parts of us are 
the easiest to find out about, and for a while the most useful 
things one can know. Take a skeleton — the bony frame- 
work of the body. Any one of average intelligence can learn 
it in a few weeks. Clothe it next with the muscles by which 
that set of bones is moved about. Furnish it with blood, 
coursing through numberless arteries and veins. Supply it 
with food and air by the means of appropriate organs. Venti- 
late and drain it. Quicken it with a nervous system. Then 
get into it and keep it in order, and you will find that the more 
intelligently you occupy that habitation, the bigger and more 
instructive a world it turns out to be. This is a safe kind of 
knowledge, because it is so sure ; and I do not see that there 
is any other kind of which this kind may not become the 
soundest basis. For, who should presume to talk physiology 
except he knows anatomy well ? Who should talk of psychol- 
ogy except he be grounded in physiology? Who should hope 
to know of the mind except as it is manifested in, by, and 
through the body ? Who is competent to instruct you in 
philosophy, in ethics, in religion itself, if he be ignorant of the 
physical mechanism of thought and feeling ? Who that has 
not grasped the significance of the vital processes that go on 
in our bodies is likely to have any accurate and reliable infor- 
mation on the general question of the conduct of human life ? 



8 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

Who that does not know the parts and powers and principles 
that enter into the composition of physical human nature is 
competent to have or to give any opinion that shall be entitled 
to our respect concerning the higher mental and spiritual as- 
pects of human nature ? No one, I think.* For in the present 
mode of existence to which we are condemned so long as we 
wear the flesh, the soul or spiritual body is so inextricably 
blended with the physical or material form, and so subject to 
mechanical conditions of activity, that no clear knowledge of 

* That is the reason why the pulpit, as a rule, floods the pews with such 
a deluge of antediluvian sewage. No man is fit to be a preacher of so- 
called divine truth who is not posted on the facts of human nature. He 
ought to know what sort of things he is talking to, as we'll as what he is 
talking about. Every man who wants to be a divine expert ought to base 
his claim to that function on human expertness. He ought to be a fair 
anatomist, a good physiologist, and a first-rate psychologist. Would you 
trust your person to a locomotive engineer whom you thought did not 
know the construction and operation of his engine, or the force of steam? 
Yet thousands of people, sensible enough in the affairs of daily life, listen 
with reverence to the glib gibberish of demented declamation from the 
pulpit, because a sort of spurious sanctity hedges about that castle of 
cowardice, that asylum of ignorance, in which persons who do not 
know, perhaps, which side of the body holds the liver, will tell you all 
about the rise and especially the fall of man, the destiny of the human 
race, — the plans, purposes, and methods of Providence, — predestination, 
foreordination, reprobation, salvation, damnation, and all the rest of the 
mystification and twistification and stultification of the facts of human 
nature — bosh, I say. 



U A WOMAN IiV THE CASE. 



the former seems to be possible unless it proceed upon 
some understanding of the latter. Otherwise, it is all fancy, 
speculation, groping blindly — it is anything but knowledge. 
It is gambling against fate, with all that we have and hope for 
at stake ; a game in playing which the ignorant and the care- 
less are the most to be envied, because they are the happiest. 

But the kind of knowledge, upon the virtue and value of 
which I am now insisting, is to be acquired, in its rudiments 
at least, by what is commonly called " medical " education. 
And those things which are usually taught in medical colleges 
seem to me to be the best possible first lessons in the science 
of life — not merely a means of earning a living. Why, then, 
it is so commonly withheld from woman, is a question which 
will widen rather than the reverse as we recede from the par- 
ticulars of this one profession and approach the general prob- 
lem, whether sex makes any difference in the right of human 
beings to know, and in their duty to learn, anything and every- 
thing that will help them to understand themselves. 

For, if medical knowledge be desirable for all those of 
either sex who have aptitude and ability and ambition in that 
direction, — why not legal lore also for those of both sexes 
who wish to practise law? And why not theological erudition 
for those women as well as men who wish to preach the gos- 
pel or exercise any other ecclesiastical functions ? And why 
not political economy and state-craft and a voice in the affairs 
of the country for those born diplomats — women — as well 



10 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

as for men who must painfully learn to be statesmen ? And 
if state-craft, what other craft, then, or handiwork, or business, 
or avocation, or art, or any exercise or activity of mind or 
body, must man debar woman on account of her sex? 

But ask me now — if woman be not the equal of man in 
everything, as free as he is to think, speak, act, with every 
right that is his, hers also — and I answer : No. These 
things have never been hers, and never will be, so long as 
there lingers in any community any relic of barbarism to 
discriminate unjustly against her, as every barbarian does ; 
and all these things and more are hers in precise proportion 
to the civilization of mankind and the humanizing of human- 
ity. Yet not until the coming race shall have come, will her 
rightful place cease to be disputed. 

Whose is the fault, that perfect equality is not yet her lot 
in any part of the world ? She is not equal to her best when 
attacked with a club, as is done in Australia, for example. 
Nor when made a beast of burden, as the Indians do out 
West. Nor when harnessed to a cart or a plough with the. 
cattle, as may be seen in more than one part of Europe. 
Nor when her feet are pinched out of shape in China. Nor 
when she is shut up in a seraglio for some lazy Turk's 
amusement. Nor when any heathen can be found to go 
about with a fan to hold up before his face when she is near, 
for fear of nobody but himself knows what. Nor when 
barter or sale, or hire, or any transaction that springs not 



-A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 1 1 

from brave and honest manhood, can win her gracious 
favor. 

It is a long stride forward from the club of the savage 
bearing down upon her person, to the lance of chivalry- 
couched to defend her fame. And every step of the way- 
has been toilingly, painfully passed over, in the lives of indi- 
viduals and in the lifetimes of nations — or has been speedily, 
happily taken, according to the measure of man's recognition 
of woman's equal rights. 

At any period, in any country or community, it is neither 
the strength of the soldier's arm, nor the length of the mer- 
chant's purse, nor the reach of the church's voice, nor the 
sweep of the king's command, — none of these is it that fixes 
time and place in the unfolding of the human race, declaring 
to what stage a people has arriven. A surer sign of dignity 
and power may be discerned in manhood's estimate of woman- 
hood. Let that be low, and the Australian club is but 
hidden, not thrown away. Let that esteem be high, and 
every weapon of the savage has been used to kindle on 
happy hearths a flame more sacred than ever Vestal tended 
in the temple — a fire, quenchless because divine, irradiating 
home. 

Complex beyond description are the social dynamics in- 
volved in this problem of the sex-relation, upon the delicate 
adjustment of which the well-being, present or prospective, 
of every community depends. If it be granted that in any 



12 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

given case the place which woman may take and hold de- 
termines the place that community takes and holds, — let us 
see some of the forces that work to hasten or retard the pro- 
cess of development. I do not now speak of savagery, 
where she is subject to brute force ; nor of semicivilization, 
that makes her a pretty toy, — but of some of the higher 
rounds of national existence, to which the term civilized may 
be applied. What is here the friction that retards, and the 
consequent loss of power to do and be all that she would, 
were she free to act out her whole nature, and accomplish 
her destined mission ? 

I can name at least three great stumbling-blocks in her 
way, if I dare to do so. The first of these is — religious intol- 
erance ; and the second of these is — scientific insolence ; 
and the third of these is — social tyranny. 

For religious intolerance says to every woman : " You 
cannot be trusted with your own soul ; therefore I will take 
charge of that, and tell you what you are to believe and how 
you must feel in your heart toward God and man." 

For scientific insolence says to every woman : " You can- 
not be trusted with your own mind ; so I will do your think- 
ing for you, and then I will tell you as much as I think you 
are capable of understanding, or, at any rate, as much as I 
think it is good for you to know." 

For social tyranny says to every woman : " You cannot be 
trusted with your own person ; so I will regulate your conduct." 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 1 3 

Thus is a triple-headed Cerberus set to guard womanhood, 
— to guard womanhood, which, if it be worthy of the name, 
is fit to keep the keepers of that brute ; and which, if it be 
unworthy, is not worth watching. 

It grates upon the ears of every stiff-necked sectarian in 
this church, and startles every timorous time-server of eccle- 
siasticism, to hear me say that religious bigotry is first among 
the forces that tend to enslave women. But history gives 
me the warrant to say, that woman is free, first and mainly, 
according to the degree of her emancipation from priestcraft, 
in whatever form of orthodox authority that hateful yoke 
may be placed upon her neck. 

Among the really great religions of the world, — among 
the few colossal systems of belief, in comparison with which 
the sects in our midst are motes in the sunbeam of eternal 
truth, the Brahminical church stands easily foremost in the 
power it has wielded as the fitting consort of tyrannous 
temporal rulers, the best-equipped, and, for time out of mind, 
the best-managed system of spiritual oppression the world 
has ever seen. The revolt of humanity from that atrocious 
hierarchy, whose heel was harder than the sword of earthly 
kings — the reaction of Progress upon Prejudice, culminated 
more than two thousand years ago in Buddhism, which to- 
day compels the conscience of one third of the human 
race. And I ask, Has woman ever had her rights in Asia ? 
ever been equal to her best in the Orient ? Never ! It 



14 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

mattered little whether her masters were Brahmins or Buddh- 
ists, or Mahometans or Zoroastrians, or priests of the tribe of 
Levi — her slavery was but of one or another form — slavery 
still. And if such be the spectacle of Eastern lands, what 
reflection of that image is held up to view in Europe and 
America ? Two or three centuries after the Man of Sorrows 
had been put to shameful death for speaking out of the Spirit 
of God that filled him — even as Manu had spoken it before, 
and Moses, and Zoroaster, and Buddha — there arose under 
Roman rule a hierarchy only less potent than its predecessors 
to work by the same methods to identical ends. Not to 
spread the true " Light of Asia," — not to hold aloft the 
torch of fire divine that Christ rekindled on Calvary, — but 
to galvanize anew a creedal corpse, propped up on two legs, 
which are the Devil and Damnation, backed up by the dogma 
of a papal infallibility. And where the hand of the Roman 
Church is heaviest, there the head of womanhood is bowed 
the lowest down. What chance has her sensitive, shrinking 
soul in the clutch of an incubus ? None, unless she wrests 
herself from such embrace with a mighty effort. The revolt 
from Catholic tyranny that was inevitable — the same anti- 
dote to Romanism that Buddhism had administered to Brah- 
minism — was found in Protestantism. The mistress of Mar- 
tin Luther inspired the Reformation when she fired the 
imagination and girded the loins of that sturdy protester. If 
one woman did that, no wonder that among the many nearest 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 1 5 

to Henry the Eighth, one was found able to precipitate yet 
another rebellion by stiffening that magnificent brute into 
imposing upon the predominant race of men a placid and 
intensely respectable Episcopacy, — that emasculate bastard 
of the scarlet woman of Rome. 

And so with every outward form of religion that sets and 
hardens into a mould of worldly shaping, till the very spirit 
of religion is petrified) and no longer vivifies the soul. Forms 
of belief repeat their shifting shapes incessantly in the letter 
of the law that killeth, and who is strong enough to withstand 
the letter that is not wise enough to discern its secret mean- 
ing ? Churches have their uses, since the womanhood of the 
world is not yet fully developed. Churches have their uses, 
whilst the womanhood of the world is being further devel- 
oped. Churches have their uses, until the womanhood of the 
world shall be perfectly developed. Woman's emancipation 
goes hand in hand with the loosening of each ecclesiastical 
fetter that is loosed in turn. And whenever the time shall 
come to protest against this episode of our time and place which 
we miscall Christianity; to protest against . . . Protestant- 
ism ; to revolt from that and every other self-styled hie- 
rarchical authority that would presume to set bounds to the 
Spirit ; to rebel against the custody of the soul by any guar- 
dian save the soul's supreme self-conscience, — whenever 
that time shall be upon us, I say, perfected womanhood it will 
be that shall enter that last protest. Then will the woman- 



l6 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE:' 

soul of the world have been enthroned again, even as it was 
before the tempter came and conquered. Then will have been 
regained in triumph that divine estate she lost so long ago. 
Then will the seed of her spirit have bruised the head of the 
serpent. And then shall the Veil of Isis be riven, and the 
naked truth be not ashamed. Then shall the seal set upon 
the lips of the Sphinx be broken, that man may know from 
whose lips to learn the secret of life, for the want of knowing 
which he now dies daily. 

That is the message some woman may bring to every man, if 
he be but fitted to receive it. That she stammers and blushes 
in the telling is less her fault than his. He should not bid her be 
ruled by religions of his making, for she should be his religion. 

What I have called " scientific insolence " is that peculiar 
exhibition of vanity which men make when they act as if 
they thought masculine intellect superior to feminine intui- 
tion. I presume we are quite unconscious, for the most part, 
of our egregious egotism in this particular — for intellectual 
arrogance is natural to man. How deeply rooted is our 
mental pride, and how sedulously such conceit is fostered by 
the every way that things go on at present, is witnessed in 
the fact that we always challenge the right and fitness of 
women to be doctors, or lawyers, or ministers, or anything 
else requiring brains for its successful exercise. That which 
in us goes without saying, in her we want the proof of. But 
let us take up a point or two. 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." If 

The best practice of medicine is but a reasonable and care- 
ful extension of the best nursing, and no one doubts whose 
nursing is always the best. I cannot speak for the law, but 
if it be good legal practice to argue unanswerably and repeat 
the process as often as occasion arises, I presume it is within 
the experience of most persons that the fair sex can do that 
as well as some other persons. I certainly should not speak 
for the clergy, but if it be the privilege and the duty of that 
profession to help us all in some of our darkest hours with 
words of faith and hope and charity, then I may cite — 

" The perfect woman, nobly planned, 
To warn, to comfort, and command." 

And the poets, though they may not always hit the mark, 
are of all men the " least liars." 

It is true, no doubt, that in the pure sciences few women 
have attained any excellence, and fewer still, if any, have 
made themselves pre-eminent. But I cannot suppose that 
this argues any real intellectual inferiority. Rather, I would 
say, it is because we men, — in this day when science is the 
regnant cult, is the orthodox way of setting one's mind at 
work, is not less grasping and tyrannous in its way than 
church dogmas are in theirs, is not less presumptuous in 
measuring all things by its own standards and trying all 
things by its own methods, is not less intolerant of differ- 
ence of opinion, is not less supercilious when criticised and 



1 8 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

not less savage when contradicted, — it is because we men as- 
sume that what is scientifically true in a given instance must 
be the whole truth of that case. This is why women take 
less kindly to science, as a rule, than men do. Because most 
of them know better. They are quicker to perceive, and 
readier to assert, that the gross materialism with which the 
scientific camp is now so strongly fortified is at best but a half- 
truth, inadequate to handle all the truth there is to be found 
by those who know of the finer and keener powers that the 
human soul may command in the search for wise self-knowl- 
edge. Spiritual truth is intuitively recognized, and when 
discerned is felt to be of a higher order than any physical or 
mechanical fact can be, in the very nature of the case, from 
the very constitution of human nature. It is not so much 
her rebellion from, as her indifference to, bare scientific 
facts, that characterizes the more finely organized and more 
keenly sensitized half of our race ; it is a real and sincere con- 
viction on her part of the greater value and use and beauty 
of many things which science leaves out of its scheme. As 
much as to say, of a given scientific fact : " Is that so ? Well, 
what of it?" That being a question which all of us, sooner 
or later, as we discard illusions one after another, come to 
face and find to be unanswerable, I think we should have 
great sympathy with the quick and vivid feminine intelli- 
gence which instinctively assumes that attitude. The point is 
not that womanly minds are unscientific, for the greatest 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 1 9 

scientists who have ever lived have been men who pos- 
sessed those peculiarly feminine powers of creative imagi- 
nation and those intuitions which enabled them to divine 
truths they had afterward to support and defend with their 
slower and more masculine logic. I should rather say thaj: 
such fine fibre and sheeny quality of mind are superscien- 
tific, reaching over and beyond, securing most precious ac- 
quisitions denied forever to duller understanding. Such 
minds work on a higher plane ; they take in clearer cognitions, 
upon which they rest, finding them restful, with which 
they live, finding them good to die with. Yet such percep- 
tions cannot be formulated, nor even described ; least of all 
can they be made common property. The wisdom that 
passeth all understanding — a very theosophy — comes not 
into the life of any who fancy that by taking thought they 
may find it out. Only those who live the life of the Spirit 
shall know the secret doctrine. Only those who are at one 
with that which is true can know it with a kind of know- 
ing that has no need of logic. Leave to the watchers on the 
house-tops of science the clear short scope of their well-de- 
fined horizon. Let but the inner eye be trained to see, and 
every limitation vanishes in the light that flashes from peak 
to peak of those heights whereon the seers of our race have 
stood to point the ever-upward way. The processes of rea- 
soning are not the final steps in such ascents. Logic is the 
scaffolding of half-understanding — the mainstay of every 



20 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

half-truth. The evidence of the senses is circumstantial, 
elusive, fugacious. The evidence of that which is unseen, 
unheard, unknown indeed to human reason, is the direct 
enduring testimony of such kind as never has the science of 
any age been able to break down. 

Yet that of which I speak must subsist as best it may in 
the rough-and-tumble of life, and its place is safer behind the 
veil of feminine qualities than beneath the shield of masculine 
attributes. Wherefore, as it seems to me, that scientific inso- 
lence which plays the tyrant over a finer science than its 
own, and would do the thinking for all mankind, and woman- 
kind too, is a piece of characteristic conceit. If our science 
has a duty of the hour which it owes to its own self-respect, 
that duty is, to purge itself of contempt of that court which is 
capable of overruling scientific decisions, and from whose 
ruling there is no appeal. I mean that higher than the mere 
police court of the physical world, — that inner court where 
the soul, be it of scientist or other, is brought to judgment to 
answer whether or not it has been true to itself amid all the 
mazes of matter, amid all the illusions of the world, amid all 
the delusions of the senses. If such account cannot be fairly 
rendered by the man of science, then woman must be ad- 
judged to have been the better scientist all along, because a 
clearer and farther-seeing human being, — one who knew she 
was right, and suffered unjustly because she could not prove 
it to all men's satisfaction. 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE:' 21 

If there be any sense in what I have urged, namely, that 
feminine brains are as good thinking-machines as is the mas- 
culine instrument of thought, — and if women are found to 
prove this in purely professional and scientific lines, for ex- 
ample, by passing as good a medical examination as other 
students, — how then does it happen that ladies are excluded 
from the Philosophical and the Biological and the Anthro- 
pological Societies of Washington ? Is it that the time is not 
come for that ? Or is it simply because these societies are 
conducted by gentlemen for their own private purposes ? If 
so, it is simply the Turk business in a new line of activity, — 
what may be called Turkish in theory at least, and hence not 
quite civilized in practice. There might, indeed, be some 
difficulty in persuading ladies to attend, since such places are 
uncommonly dull. But I think the deeper difficulty is this : 
that our philosophers are not quite philosophical enough, and 
our biologists are not sufficiently biological, and our anthro- 
pologists prefer to be anthropological in a man-sided manner. 
For, observe : if true philosophy inculcates serenity and tran- 
quillity of mind under all circumstances, together with entire 
resignation to the inevitable, no married man can doubt a 
woman's ability to teach philosophy. And if patience under 
long-suffering, silent endurance of wrongs, moral courage and 
fortitude, cheerfulness, kindliness, and every bright fine virtue 
that can adorn personal character, be among the best out- 
comes of the wisest philosophy of life, who is there to doubt 



22 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

her ability to practise philosophy ? How, then, does she 
shine through her absence from the Philosophical Society ? 
Again : if biology be the science of life, as the name implies, 
and not merely the study of the bones and skins and furs and 
feathers of the lower animals, as it appears now to be, what 
is there about the science of biology that should restrict its 
study to men ? Women have surely an equal interest in the 
science as well as the art of living, — why not, then, an equal 
share in its study, and an equal voice in biological councils? 
The most vital of all biological questions do, in fact, wait 
upon her answer; why, then, does the Council of the Bio- 
logical Society meet and adjourn without asking her advice? 
Once more : anthropology is the science of man ; that is, of 
mankind — the human race — humanity; it is the science, not 
of men only, but of men and women. Therefore, how does 
it happen that only one sex discusses the problems presented 
to the Anthropological Society? To keep it one-sided, as it 
is now kept, would seem to argue that anthropology is merely 
the science of men, and of men, moreover, who know that 
there are things about themselves that they do not wish 
women to discover. Thackeray prayed that "our women- 
folks might never find us out " ; but that is a prayer which 
God has never been kind enough to answer in our favor. 
There ought not to be any occasion for it, and there would 
not be, if the refining and ennobling, and, in a word, the civil- 
izing potency of womanhood had that free scope and fair 
play and full effect which are its divine birthright. 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 2$ 

Perhaps these questions will answer themselves when we 
grow still more civilized, just as the question of the co-educa- 
tion of the sexes in this college has given its own answer to-night. 

My third point, the social tyranny which enslaves us all, 
but terrorizes women especially, is too pointed to need sharp- 
ening by any words of mine. Everybody knows that nobody 
is anybody who is not in the fashion. Every woman knows, 
I am informed, that the consciousness of being well dressed 
brings a peace of mind that religion cannot confer. And 
doubtless there are conquests to be made in other fields than 
those of science. What next shall I say ? I do not know.* 

* That, of course, was an innocent oratorical fiction. I knew perfectly 
well what to say next, and, in fact, it was in the manuscript from which I 
read, but my audience had grown so scary and gaspy at this point that I 
spared them. It was simply my compliments to a horrid old female 
bugaboo, named Mrs. Grundy, whose nose I pulled in Washington some 
years ago, and who has never since fallen in love with me. I intended to 
disrobe the old lady and show her in her naked ugliness; but the church 
was full of young people, and it was hardly the place for practising public 
dissection of such a monstrosity. I also reflected that in the present 
state of fashionable society, so cunningly contrived to stimulate sexual 
passion and punish its gratification under other than the " high license " 
of the church, it is much more difficult for any woman than for any man 
to treat Mother Grundy as she ought to be served. Almost every one is 
ready to applaud a man whose attitude is: "They say — what do they 
say? — let them say on "; but few are found to render like tribute to the 
woman who assumes like independence of scandal and gossip. But the 
remedy is in her own hands, after all; and as long as she will submit to 



24 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE:' 

But there is something rotten in Washington, if there never 
was in Denmark, when to be well dressed is to be half-un- 
dressed, putting religion quite out of mind, and putting 
science to its trumps in trying to cure pneumonia. Dress- 
reform, for one thing, cannot begin too soon for morals or for 
health, or stay too long for the benefit of society ; unless, in- 
deed, the world is only a stage — a stage, that is, in our prog- 
ress from low comedy to the legitimate drama of life. But 

be talked down for fear of being talked up, just so long will she be under 
the lash of Grundy's tongue. What I know of the comparative purity of 
masculine and feminine morals in the matter of their mutual relations, 
leads me to the theory that a woman who " needs watching," as the 
phrase goes, is not worth watching; and that if she were, she would con- 
trive to elude the social sentinels — those post-dated tabbies who talk away 
their grandchildren's reputations behind their turkey-tail fans. The reason 
why " society " is in such a perpetual panic about the private morals of its 
female members is not because it is moral, but because it is afraid of 
being found out. Considering how well it knows itself, that fear is due to 
a reasonable and commendable instinct of self-preservation. That raises 
the question, however, whether such an artificial system of herding the 
sexes is worth the care requisite to keep it up. It is a vastly complicated 
evolution of the Turkish idea, according to which a woman will be bad if 
she has a chance, so she is locked up — a method which commends itself 
for simplicity, directness, and effect. We retain the idea, simply substi- 
tuting a Grundy for a eunuch; and until we dismiss the idea, and pro- 
ceed upon a better opinion of female virtue, we shall continue to employ 
only palliative instead of remedial measures against the vices and follies 
of our social fabric. 



"A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 2$ 

here is woman already reigning supreme ; it is for her to say 
how all such things shall be. If she is satisfied with society 
as it is, there is nothing more to be said : she will continue to 
be watched as now, so long as she is content to acknowledge 
whose name is called Frailty. Social slavery is just fit for 
social slaves ! Their emancipation will not be proclaimed till 
they cease to be such of their own accord, in full, clear, steady 
recognition of the equal right of every human being to say to 
religion, to say to science, to say to society, " I helped to 
make you what you are ; I will help to make you over again, 
if you do not suit me." 

No one can foretell the result, or presume to limit the 
power of this splendid spirit of individual right to individual 
opinion, to individual character, to individual conduct. 
Think, be, and do for yourselves, and take the conse- 
quences. A woman says to herself, " Your medical college 
does not suit me ; therefore, I will make it over." And the 
thing is done. Let but the same spirit prevail in the State, 
till woman's present political disabilities be removed ! * 

* I am, of course, an uncompromising suffragist, and I believe that 
woman needs the ballot-box more than that box needs her, though I have 
little respect for the personal character, and less for the political methods, 
of Miss Susan B. Anthony, who seems to have lately injured the cause by 
some very cheap tricks. Women must learn that it is not men's fault, but 
their own, that they are not allowed to vote. The real reason why they 
are denied the ballot, is that a majority of their sex do not want to vote. 



26 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

That spirit which says to itself " I will " is invincible. 
Will-power made the world, and every one of us has it in 
some degree. That power is all abroad to-day, and a fiery 
train of goods and ills is following after. Free-thought is 
breaking the back of an intolerable because intolerant the- 

And the reason why they do not want to vote, is because they do not know 
enough to feel that want. And the principal reason why they are thus 
ignorant, is their theological superstitions about the Bible and St. Paul r 
etc. The church is mainly built and supported by the timidity and docil- 
ity and sentimentality of the emotional half of our race. Woman fancies 
she needs the church, when the fact is, the church could not get along 
without her. If she should " stand from under," every symbol of bar- 
barous phallic worship we now witness in the church steeple would 
totter and fall forever. The Roman Church knows this as well as I do; 
the Protestant Church, representing a sort of amateurish priestcraft, has 
not made that discovery. In fine, the church is to-day the bulwark of 
female slavery, just as fifty years ago it was the stronghold of negro 
slavery. I am not surprised when some old, worn-smooth hack suffragist, 
like Miss Anthony, says, " O, give 'em a little Jesus if they want it ! " for I 
understand her flirtation with the orthodox God-in-the-Constitution 
Church party. But I am astonished and perplexed when I see Miss 
Frances E. Willard, a bright and brainy and all-alive woman, using her 
great influence to keep women under the ban of clerical despotism and 
scriptural superstitions, — though I had to laugh, as any heathen philos- 
opher might, to hear my good friend declare that " Christ shall be this 
world's king," when I remembered that the gentle Jew said of himself, 
" My kingdom is not of this world." As to such a difference of opinion 
between her Jesus and his Frances, I must let them settle it themselves. 
It is too deep a question for a benighted sinner like me. 



WOMAN IN THE CASE." V 



oW and brushing the cobweb creeds of orthodoxy from 
the living heart of a nobler, higher faith.-faith in God-made 
man, not in a man-made God. Free-thought in spintua ism, 
in theosophy, in psychic science, is pricking the over-blown 
bubble of a merely materialistic pseudo-science. Free-thought 
is setting social forces at work to disrupt every cast-iron 
conventionality. We are moving on at a fearful pace, 
acquiring irresistible momentum. Events crowd closer and 
faster every day. Let the sluggards in spirit be quickened, 
let the dullards in thought awaken, let the laggards m life 
improve their gait, lest the fate of all such be upon them 
The spirit of these times is change — change — change ; fit 
yourselves for new conditions or perish, for only the fittest 
survive. Leave a timorous time-serving to its own servi- 
tude; let the dogmas of the churches decay in their own 
decrepitude; and challenge the puerilities of a kind of 
science that is already in its second childhood. The pro- 
test of senile conservatism is futile. We cannot stand still ; 
we must make progress in the teeth of every prejudice. 
Change is the ringing key-note of the hour. Where are but 
yesterday's most cherished beliefs and hopes most dear and 
burdens most sore ? Buried with yesterday's setting sun, if 
we are wiser to-day. And what of to-morrow's rising sun? 
Who shall be the heralds of the new dawn, and what shall be 
ushered in? We -we of to-day are those heralds; and 
what we will to do to-day, it is that ushers in the morning 



28 "A WOMAN IN THE CASE." 

fair or foul for us every one. Patience — patience — let the 
fruit of works ripen ; let these parlous times mature. What 
next ? If we would be wise, let us prophesy after the event. 
If we would know "what next," let us wait and see; 
" they also serve who wait." Only one thing is safe to say : 
Men never act alone. They cannot. They may think they 
do, but they do not. The only safe prediction is this : What- 
ever the case may be, there will be a woman in the case, 
God bless her ! 




POSTSCRIPT 



THEOSOPHY IN THE COLLEGES. 

BY MRS. JENNIE E. HICKS. 



[The Washington Post, Sunday, June 12, 1887.] 

The Arlington, Washington, June 9, 1887. 
It is sometimes a rash thing to set your light upon a hill-top where it may 
be seen of all men, and cast its rays afar to light up the surrounding obscu- 
rity. There are people who pertinaciously cling to their cobwebs and 
shadows, and who refuse to let in the light. Whoever sets about to up- 
root popular prejudices is sure to be assailed, and to awaken a hornet's 
nest about his devoted ears. A tempest in a teapot has long been brewing 
in Washington's scientific, religious, and social circles, and all because one 
man has been found in their midst who is brave enough to have the cour- 
age of his opinions, and to publicly proclaim them even under the austere 
noses of the straitlaced Faculty and Trustees of a venerable university, 
in the presence of a packed audience of Washington's most sedate and 
reverent church-goers, who gathered to listen to the graduating exercises of 
the National Medical College, — the Medical Department of the Colum- 
bian University. The Commencement, which was the sixty-fifth of the 
college, was held beneath the vaulted roof of the Congregational Church, 
on G Street, and rarely have the vast audiences who have gathered within 
its walls been treated to a more genuine sensation than they were at this 
same festival. A terrible battle was opened upon that venerable platform 



30 POSTSCRIPT. 



by a doughty knight of scientific fame, who set about slashing to the right 
and the left, making vigorous plunges with his keen-edged arguments and 
wit against all bigotries and prejudices, whether obsolete or still painfully 
alive, and quite regardless of consequences. 

Prof. Elliott Coues delivered the closing address to the graduates. As 
he has long enjoyed the reputation of a man of vast acquirements, the large 
audience was quite confident that his address would be crammed with eru- 
dition, plentifully spiced with wit. Now, it is a little curious that there are 
minds quite susceptible of receiving knowledge, and of even rejoicing over 
the cramming process, if done in a perfectly orthodox way, but which very 
quickly rebel if anything startling or unexpected is administered. They 
strictly insist upon being led along those safe and conventional paths which 
have been trodden by generations gone by. Professing to be enamoured of 
originality, as it does, this is a world very much given to platitudes, of 
which it will swallow the largest doses with perfect equanimity, but once 
offer it something stronger for mental digestion, — something to jostle it 
out of the old ruts of philosophical or religious thought, — and, lo ! it is 
incensed and alarmed at once, and immediately rebels. Yet where is the 
use of flying into a rage over a new idea? Better to sit down and calmly 
contemplate it. Is it because the mass of men are intellectually lazy, and 
do not wish to make Herculean efforts to let in the light through their hard- 
shell craniums, preferring to bask at their ease, soothed to tranquillity by 
the innocent hum of flies, and resenting the trumpet-tones which would 
call them out of their peaceful retreats and set them thinking? Prof. 
Coues is not the man to deal in platitudes, and in view of his recent studies 
and investigations, and those wider views of life and the needs of the age, 
which his researches have given him, it is not surprising that he should say 
things which were calculated to amaze his hearers. The one girl-graduate 
in the class was the key-note of the Professor's address. For many a long 
year women had vainly knocked at the door of the college for admission, 
imploring to be allowed the privilege of studying medical science. For 



POSTSCRIPT. 31 



many a long year their request had been refused by the Trustees and 
Faculty, who had no valid reason to give, except that, as women never had 
been medical students, the mere idea was preposterous. What never had 
been ought not to be. That was all they had to say in justification. There 
was no precedent for opening the college doors to women, — and who so 
rash as to rush into a position as devoid of precedent as an exhausted re- 
ceiver of air? Such a course could be but fatal; and thus, like many an- 
other deliberative body, these masculine wiseacres solemnly decreed among 
themselves that one half of the community should be debarred from the 
knowledge which was freely imparted to the other half. And in just such 
way men have been decreeing for centuries, until the other half are finally 
awakened to a sense of their own claims to an equal distribution of all the 
prizes of life, including education as well as things of lesser value. And 
thus the barriers are being broken down. 

After giving the history of the futile efforts of women to enter the col- 
lege, and complimenting the Faculty that after sixty-five years of waiting, 
one woman had now received her diploma, Prof. Coues went on to advo- 
cate the advancement of woman in all directions, and to throw the 
responsibility for her long period of bondage upon the religious intolerance, 
scientific insolence, and social tyranny of the age. . . . 

It was a little curious to watch the effect of all this as the Professor went 
on. The graduates turned around in their chairs from time to time to look 
at him with wondering eyes. The Faculty grew nervous, and, while 
endeavoring to appear calm, felt something very like an earthquake 
beneath their feet, and could not keep from quaking. For what would 
people say? The distinguished naval officers who honored the occasion 
with their presence on the platform looked immensely profound and wise, 
and were not in the least to be shocked by anything which might fall from 
the speaker's lips — why should such valiant heroes be? They had seen 
active service; they had snuffed the actual powder of cannon in conflict; 
they were not afraid of that kind of bloodless warfare, but evidently 



32 POSTSCRIPT. 



enjoyed it. Among the audience, the grave and reverent deacons, who 
sat, stiff and starched, with an over-powering respectability, stanchly up- 
borne and supported by the proud consciousness that they were the pillars 
and lights of the church, rubbed their eyes, stared at the Professor, doubted 
their ears, and wondered what he could be driving at. Of course, a man 
who was addressing a class of graduating young men and one young 
woman could not be saying anything wrong, or out of the way, especially 
when that man was so learned as the Professor was reported to be. But 
something was evidently the matter — they could not say exactly what. 
The venerable matrons in the front pews looked sedately toward the plat- 
form through their glasses, and bore with the most unflinching lack of 
enthusiasm this vigorous onslaught upon the prejudices of the age made in 
behalf of their own sex, — not being at all clear in their own minds whether 
they approved of it all, until they had gone and slept over the matter. And 
the giggling girls in the rear were so busy exchanging glances with their 
adorers both on the platform and off it that they only caught stray sen- 
tences here and there, which they thought to be very fine; and mean- 
while they ogled the " sweet girl-graduate " through their opera-glasses, 
as though she had been a new species of hyena, or something uncommonly 
dreadful. 

But the Professor went valiantly on, despite the fidgeting Faculty upon 
the platform, and the stares and bewildered looks of the audience in the 
pews. He probably intended to amaze them all, and could not be blind 
to the effect. He knew that he was bitterly assailing many of his hearers 
in the form of their life-long beliefs. But, believing as he did, that these 
were but the dead ghosts of the past, and not veritable beings, — not truths, 
— was it not clearly his duty to assail them, and to sweep them away for- 
ever, as being totally unworthy ? . . . 

There was really nothing startling enough in the Professor's address to 
lead to tragical results. But the effect upon the Faculty was such that 
they declined to print the address, as was customary, upon which the Pro- 



POSTSCRIPT. 33 



fessor resigned. Published in pamphlet form, and entitled " A Woman in 
the Case," Prof. Coues has given his address to the public at large, that it 
may judge for itself as to the truth or wisdom of his ideas. . . . 

Although the true meaning of " Theosophy " is Divine wisdom, it is a 
theosophy the college wiseacres are afraid of. They are as much in dread 
of unusual knowledge as they were of the pretty or ugly women who kept 
rapping at their doors till they had to be admitted. And there are those 
who aver that these new ideas will also persist in following the women 
into the colleges till they too become a part of the daily routine. People 
will then be asking how any one could ever have thought of denying them 
admission. For, after all, there are already plenty of people who believe 
that Prof. Coues's ideas do not belong to Theosophy alone, but are hard, 
common-sense convictions which are coming to be entertained by many a 
thoughtful man and woman, and which one need not go to the far land of 
Buddha to unearth or discover. 

Sophie Sparkle. 



-~*w£Him*«- 




PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 



PRESS NOTICES OF THE BIOGEN SERIES. 

Biogen: The Origin of Life. — At the last meeting of the Philo- 
sophical Society, Dr. Coues delivered an address in response to an invita- 
tion to favor the society with his views on the origin and nature of life. 
The speaker came out in entire opposition to any mechanical theory of the 
universe, and any materialistic view of life. . . . The address was a closely 
woven piece of logic, quietly, but impressively, delivered. — The Post 
(Washington), May n, 1882. 

Few American ornithologists can rival Dr. Coues in his experiences of 
nature, and probably none can equal him in fertility of the pen. — The 
Athenceum (London), Sept. 9, 1882. 

Work in a fresh field from such an accomplished author is one which all 
who know Dr. Coues's previous writings cannot hesitate to welcome. The 
fertility of the writer's pen really seems amazing. — The Zoologist (Lon- 
don), October, 1882. 

A composition entitled " The Daemon of Darwin .' ' — This poem, in blank- 
verse, — after describing in most thrilling language the death of Darwin and 
his descent into hell, where, under the guidance of a spirit, he witnessed 
the birth of matter, — was a most eloquent recital of the methods of evolu- 
tion from Moner to Man, and closed with a dialogue between the disem- 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 35 



bodied spirits of Darwin and Socrates. The recitation throughout was 
listened to with the deepest attention, and interrupted with frequent 
bursts of applause. — National Republican, Oct. 3, 1882. 

Tributes to Darwin, on this side of the water, have not been wanting in 
number and heartiness. ... In a Washington paper we find brief, but 
admiring, mention of a lecture on " The Daemon of Darwin," delivered at 
the National Medical College, by Dr. Elliott Coues, whose motive seems 
to have been to indicate what philosophy may be deduced from the Dar- 
winian Theory of Evolution, with special reference to its bearing upon 
Platonism and its anti-materialistic tendency. — The Nation (New York), 
Oct. 12, 1882. 

His famous lecture on "The Daemon of Darwin." — This remarkable 
prose poem is a most exquisite conception, the argument of which begins 
with the death of Darwin, his burial at Westminster Abbey, his descent 
into hell, where he witnesses the transformations of matter from Moner to 
Man, and the evolution of the soul. — The National Republican, Nov. 
15, 1.882. 

The official body of the Unity Presbyterian Church passed, at their last 
meeting, resolutions of thanks to Dr. Coues for his lecture on the " Daemon 
of Darwin." — Exchange, November, 1882. 

It is refreshing to find that everything is not so solemn, and finished, and 
" grown up," in this world of ours, that wit and originality are not 
unknown quantities in the problem of human existence, and the most 
delightful realization of this is Dr. Coues's lecture on "The Daemon of 
Darwin." It is unique and clever to the highest degree, and so cunningly 
written and happily communicated that one can hardly snatch a moment 
from its engrossing interest, and subtle and charming wit, to wonder how 
so infinite riches can be crowded in so little room. As a literary effort, 
the lecture is a success. — The Capital (Washington), Dec. 3, 1882. 



36 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 

The school officials have invited Dr. Coues to deliver his lecture, " The 
Daemon of Darwin.' ; ... To the average mind, and to the child's mind 
still less so, the difference, if any, between Darwinism and atheism is not 
appreciable; and if the public instructors are to countenance this doctrine 
so openly, what assurance have the parents that the religious training of 
their children will not be neglected? — The Post (Washington), Feb. 17, 
1883. 

Replying to the assertions made in to-day's Post, to the effect that the 
lecture of Dr. Coues will greatly corrupt the morals of the scholars of the 
high school, I will say that the lecture is intended to meet and refute just 
such objections, by explaining the wide difference between atheism and 
Darwinism, and showing that the latter involves nothing inconsistent with 
the truth there is in the Bible, or with the most elevated and refined spirit 
of Christianity. Hugh M. Smith. 

He proceeds to argue as if Dr. Coues's lecture was in favor of the Dar- 
winian system, so called, as opposed to the accepted doctrines of Christian- 
ity; whereas it is entirely opposed to it, and simply goes to prove the truth 
of revealed religion. — The Post (Washington), Feb. 18, 1883. 

The Daemon of Darwin. — It was dramatic, graphic, and forcible, poetry 
and philosophy intermingled. The imaginary dialogue between Socrates 
and Darwin, in which ancient and modern science was discussed, was most 
beautiful. . . .. Everything in life w T as satisfactorily proven by Dr. Coues to 
be under the direct supervision of a Superior Being. . . . The lecturer 
held his audience spell-bound for more than an hour and was greatly 
applauded. — The National Republican, Feb. 20, 1883. 

Boston, Feb. 14, 1883. 
Elliott Coues, M. D., Washington, D. C. : 

Dear Sir, — The undersigned, having learned that you have delivered 
your lecture entitled " The Dsemon of Darwin " several times in Washing- 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 37 



ton and vicinity, respectfully ask you to give the citizens of Boston an 
opportunity to listen to it at such time as would suit your convenience. 
Yours very truly, 
(Signed) John M. Ordway, 

Professor, etc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 
Alpheus Hyatt, 
Professor and Curator Boston Society of Nattiral History. 
Edward Burgess, 
Secretary Boston Society of Natural History. 
Albert Palmer, Mayor of Boston. 
Theodore Lyman. 

His Honor the Mayor . . . introduced Prof. Coues as the greatest philo- 
sophical thinker of the nineteenth century. His lecture gave ample evi- 
dence that it is possible to dress the deepest of scientific topics in the most 
popular and dramatic of styles. — Daily Globe (Boston), March 2, 1883. 

The address could hardly be called lecture, but, to be more explicit, it 
was the reading of a prose poem called " The Daemon of Darwin." The 
poem was not one that would interest a commonplace audience, for it was 
in many places filled with scientific and mythological terms, and abounded 
in rich figures of speech. — The Post (Boston), March 2, 1883. 

The Daemon of Darwin . . . designed to place the argument for the 
existence of the soul, here and hereafter, upon scientific ground, as the 
logical corollary of the Darwinian Theory of Evolution, and in so doing Dr. 
Coues is bold and consistent enough to do what Darwin himself did not 
do. — Evening Transcript (Boston), March 2, 1883. 

Dr. Elliott Coues has returned from Boston, where he read his great lec- 
ture in the presence of over 2,000 people. The Mayor's introduction, the 
appreciating attention of the cultivated audience, and the notices of the 



38 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 

daily press, eulogistic without a single exception, were all the praise that 
even Boston can give to conquering genius. — Washington Exchange, 
March 7, 1883. 

Dr. Elliott Coues is still engaged, with apparent success, in what may be 
called the reconciling of science and paganism. His lecture on " The 
Dcsmon of Darwin," in which the transubstantiation of matter from the 
corporeal to the spiritual state is imagined. ... — The Nation (New 
York), March 22, 1883. 

Biogen : A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life. — Dr. 
Elliott Coues, from whose recent address before the Philosophical Society this 
pamphlet is arranged, has a scientific record of work unequalled in variety, 
extent, and perfection, and has won repute as a scientist-philosopher, add- 
ing greatly to his honors in England, as at home, by the lectures and trea- 
tises he has given to the public the last three years. — The Republican 
(Washington), June 10, 18S3. 

Biogen : A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life. By Prof. 
Elliott Coues, Member of the National Academy of Sciences. — This is a 
brief but masterly treatise on the origin of life in opposition to the preva- 
lent materialism of the day. It meets the materialist on his own ground, 
though reaching up to a refinement of matter not readily recognized by 
observers of merely external phenomena. The work is highly recom- 
mended by those competent to judge who have read it. — Herald and 
Presbyter, April 23, 1884. 

Biogen. — Prof. Coues treats his subject from the conservative stand-point, 
and is a stanch believer in immortality. His book, therefore, deserves a 
careful reading from all students of Christian philosophy. The preface, from 
the pleasure to be derived from its ready wit and lively humor, is well worth 
the price of the book. — Morning Star (Dover, N. H.), May 28, 1884. 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 39 

Biogen : A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life. By Prof. 
Elliott Coues. Second edition. Boston : Estes & Lauriat. 1844. i2mo, 
pp. 66. — It is not easy to characterize this lively essay in the few lines 
which we propose to devote to it. It consists of an address delivered to 
the Philosophical Society of Washington, handsomely reprinted in a 
primer form, with a preface and appendix. The preface is witty, if not alto- 
gether dignified and wise, and — forewarned by the title — it is hardly 
reasonable to complain of the appendix, because " a speculation " is purely 
speculative, and is too discursive to be severely logical. The address 
itself, in our judgment, is fairly effective in its destructive portion, and in 
its constructive portion neither illegitimate nor truly scientific. It appears 
that a retiring president of the Philosophical Society at Washington had 
declared, in an old-fashioned way, that " there are whole groups of phe- 
nomena, characteristic of living beings and peculiar to them, which cannot 
be intelligently explained as the mere resultants of the chemical and physi- 
cal forces of the universe," and which were, therefore, referred " to the 
operations of a vital principle." Whereupon the representatives of a 
newer school of science contended that this idea was now quite antiquated 
and effete; that life is a result of the molecular aggregation of matter in an 
appropriate activity of the more highly compounded molecules. Here is 
the monistic set against the dualistic view. Our author now takes his turn, 
and, being pugnaciously dualistic, contends that this chemico-physical 
theory of life is unscientific in the sense that it is unwarranted by the facts, 
and is incapable of accounting for them; that, at least, it can have no firm 
standing-ground until it can " satisfactorily explain the difference between, 
for example, a live amoeba and a dead one." . . . 

Glancing at the constructive part of Prof. Coues's essay, we come upon a 
curious antithesis between his view of the relation of life to matter and that 
of his monistic opponents. The latter conceive of vitality as a result of 
matter when molecularly much compounded, and suppose that the more 
complex the molecular composition the easier the explanation of the vital 



40 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 

phenomena. The former, who has to conceive of spirit or mind in associa- 
tion with matter, has the idea that the more attenuated and ethereal the 
matter the nearer he is to comprehending the junction. In his conception, 
matter in its most dissociated state, such as that conceived to fill interstellar 
space, may be capable of "thrilling to a thought," as does the luminiferous 
rether to solar radiation; and this is the gist of "Biogen." Biogen is his 
name for " spirit in combination with the minimum of matter necessary to 
its manifestation," and with this hypothetical solder he would " establish 
a connection between mind and matter"; as if one could any more com- 
prehend the action of mind upon dilute than upon gross matter. . . . 
South's witty comment upon the foolish people, who, as Isaiah describes, 
used a part of a tree for firewood and of the residue made an idol for wor- 
ship, — "as if there were more divinity in one end of a stick than the 
other," — may in these days be turned against the theologians. But many 
of them, and most of the theistic naturalists, have learned the lesson it 
teaches. A few were wise enough to learn it early. Still the evidence of 
mind in nature is much more telling in some parts than in others; and in- 
sistence upon these need not imply that belief hangs by a chain the 
strength of which is only that of its weakest link. — Prof. Asa Gray, in 
The Nation (New York), July 3, 1884. 

We have been much interested lately in reading a little book entitled 
" Biogen," written by Prof. Elliott Coues, and published by Estes & Lauriat, 
Boston. Prof. Coues comes to the discussion of the nature of life from 
the Christian point of view, and what he says is well worth the reading. 
We allude to the little book here to call attention to one point only. In 
his preface the writer cleverly shows how the secret of life, whatever they 
may profess, eludes the materialists. When mathematics and physics and 
chemistry had each failed to show what life is, " Then biology — ' The 
Science of Life ' — had come to the rescue with a substance known as 
protoplasm; for physics had proven that nothing existed but matter in 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 4 1 

motion; chemistry had proven that protoplasm was matter in motion; 
biology had proven that life was a mode of motion of matter; ergo, proto- 
plasm was the vital principle; and it had been just upon the point of being 
discovered by the Society [Philosophical Society] when the protoplasm, 
which the Society had examined, died." Just so ! There is a difference 
even in protoplasm between something alive and the same thing dead. 
The materialist cannot tell us the secret of life. Life — it comes only 
from the Life-Giver ! — Christian Illustrated Weekly, July 12, 1884. 

Biogen: A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life. 
By Prof. Elliott Coues, Member of the National Academy of Sciences. 
Second edition. — The crux of the life-problem is the subject of this volume. 
It is a " speculation," not assuming to be a solution. It deals with nebu- 
lous matter, protoplasm, soul-stuff, and such mysterious topics. Prof. 
Coues is a naturalist of acknowledged ability, and statements from his pen 
are entitled to careful consideration. His monograph has already attracted 
considerable attention. — Keystone (Philadelphia, Penn.), July 19, 1884. 

The name and reputation of Prof. Elliott Coues are well known in the 
world of science, but our readers will remember him better in connection 
with his recent visit to England, and the interest shown in his book, 
" Biogen." — Light (London), Jan. 31, 1885. 

Prof. Coues is a scientist, and as such is devoting his time and talents 
to psychical investigation in his own way, by such methods and along such 
lines as his genius inspires, his experience commends, and his time permits. 
. . . Those who know Prof. Coues's views more in detail should read his 
interesting and wonderfully suggestive little book entitled " Biogen." — 
Religio-Philosophical Journal, Jan. 24, 1885. 

Prof. Elliott Coues, whose treatise on Biogen, or a spiritual basis of life, 
we have commended, falls under the displeasure and contempt of the 
Popular Science Monthly, whose materialistic methods are transcended by 



42 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 



this large-souled and able scientist. Last month it mentioned Prof. Coues's 
" Biogen " as ..." a spree in speculation." . . . Prof. Coues may well 
count the contempt of the Popular Science Monthly as high honor. 

Giles B. Stebbins. 

Science . . . has lately refused to publish an article by Prof. Coues, a 
man of high scientific standing, entitled " Can Ghosts be Investigated ? " in 
which it is said that they can and should be. The Popular Science 
Monthly is equally impudent, holding the matter beneath any investigation. 
In due time these magazines will be ashamed of their course, and seek to 
cover it up. — Religio-Philosophical Journal, Feb. 7, 1885. 

The D/EMON of Darwin. By Prof. Elliott Coues. — Invaluable in 
psychic research to those seeking the basis of a sound system of psychic 
science. It applies the established principles of evolution, as held by biol- 
ogists and physicists, to the solution of the highest problems in spiritual 
philosophy, namely, the development and probable destiny of the souL 
— The Chronicle (Washington), April 19, 1885. 

The second issue in the Biogen Series is Dr. Elliott Coues's "The 
Daemon of Darwin," a paper originally prepared as a memorial address to 
be delivered from the Chair of Anatomy of the National Medical College in 
Washington at the opening of the session, in October, 1882. It is an en- 
deavor to present in the form of a prose poem the Darwinian idea of Evo- 
lution. It was written soon after the death of Darwin. The book, in its 
idea and the manner of carrying it out, is unique, and will excite wide 
attention. — Evening Transcript (Boston), May 25, 1885. 

Two noteworthy books, recently published by Estes & Lauriat, are 
" The Daemon of Darwin," by Dr. Elliott Coues, and a " Buddhist Cate- 
chism," by H. S. Olcott, edited with copious annotations by Dr. Coues. 
. . . Dr. Coues, in the Biogen Series, of which the above-named books 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 43 

are numbered 2 and 3, respectively, has become an exponent of views 
that may be described as spiritual, Oriental, in contradistinction to such 
as may be called materialistic, Occidental. ..." The Daemon of Darwin " 
is a prose poem, rhapsodical perhaps, but, as a method of presenting the 
views of the author, the eternal verities he strives to impress, it has the 
merit of absolute novelty. The word painting of the author shows a bold 
and experienced hand. . . . There is never a sigh of hesitancy, of groping 
for a shade of expression, and there are passages of extreme beauty, which 
seem to have somehow rushed themselves into print, with an utter contempt 
for any dressing-down to meet verbal criticism, a richness of construction 
and verbiage pervading the whole. . . . Without copious extracts, no just 
idea of this literary and scientific novelty can be conveyed. . . . The 
"Buddhist Catechism" is a simple, child-like exposition of a system of 
philosophy, or rather of a moral code, to which the term " Buddhism " is 
applied. Its authenticity is properly vouched for, and it may be received 
for just what it purports to be. This little book cannot fail to liberalize 
and widen the views of such of its readers as have been accustomed to 
apply the terms " heathen," " idolater," " pagan," and the like to millions 
of their fellow-men who have been differently, but perhaps as wisely, taught 
as themselves. — The Beacon (Boston), June 27, 1885. 

Every profession must have its humorist, and that of the scientist is not 
an exception. We may think of an uproarious physician and a doctor of 
divinity who cracks jokes; even undertakers make their puns. . . . Why 
is it, then, that a ridiculous scientist, especially one who does not know 
how absurd he is, should be so supremely laughable? It is with some such 
ideas as these that one glances through these little pretentiously demure 
pamphlets, in white covers, edited by Dr. Elliott Coues. . . . He must 
splurge before larger audiences, and thus we have the reason for the series 
called Biogen. The first has been noted; the second and third are 
now let loose on a suffering public. Silly books have appeared already in 



44 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 

1885, but surely none will yield the palm to the " The Daemon of Darwin." 
. . . Most men would be content to try a shuddering public with one such 
book at a time, but Dr. Coues adds to his crime by editing, with many 
incoherent notes, a translation of a Singhalese Catechism for Buddhists. 
. . . He writes as if in a delirium, produced by a mental indigestion. — 
The Times (New York), June 28, 1885. 

The Biogen Series of popular issues is characteristic. . . . But how 
many of the biologists know what "anagogics" means is a question, and 
we have doubts as to how many of our scientists know even the meaning 
of "biogen." . . . The "Buddhist Catechism" is excellent; besides, we 
deem it thoroughly reliable. . . . The " Daemon of Darwin " is not, in 
our judgment, equal to the rest of the series. The book is what we call a 
heavy joke; ... a book which has no drawback to relieve its dulness, 
and which even dulness itself has condemned. — The Post (Washington), 
July 5, 1885. 

A Buddhist Catechism. — This is a book of singular interest, since it 
opens up a novel and interesting subject. To many readers it is simply 
curious, while to some others — disciples of occultism, spiritualism, and 
rationalism — it will be regarded as a kind of bible. — The Keystone, July 
18, 18S5. 

The Daemon of Darwin. — This is No. 2 of the Biogen Series, which, 
under the editorial direction of Dr. Coues, promises to present us, in a com- 
pact form, some of the finest essays of the day on religion, science, and 
philosophy; . . . one of the most beautiful prose poems we have seen; 
a eulogy of the great scientist, woven throughout with the chaplets of 
the illustrious dead, by the side of which all that was perishable of Darwin 
was deposited. . . . No one investigating the science of life should omit 
to read this little volume. — Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago), July 
18, 1885. 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 45 

The D/EMON of Darwin. — This volume is second in the Biogen 
Series, the series taking its name from its first book, " Biogen," now in 
its third edition. . . . The style of the book is peculiar; the subject is a 
difficult one, one that the average reader will hardly care for, yet the 
scholar will find much interesting matter. — Providence Journal, July 19, 
1885. 

A Buddhist Catechism. — The third volume of the Biogen Series 
is of a different tone and character from the preceding works in this 
series, and, coming as it does with the recommendation of Sumangala, 
the high-priest of Sripada and Galle, who vouches for the work as accu- 
rate, and agreeing with the canon of the Southern Buddhist Church, value 
is added to the work. — Sunday Journal, July 19, 1885. 

No. 2, The Daemon of Darwin, No. 3, A Buddhist Catechism. 
— The former of these books is a eulogy of Darwin; the latter, a statement 
of the Buddhist faith from Indian sources. . . . Neither of these volumes 
will lead the reader to a better knowledge of the truth. — Western Chris- 
tian Advocate, July 22, 1885. 

Second and third volumes of the series, just issued, are "The Daemon of 
Darwin," by the author of "Biogen" (Dr. Coues himself), and " A Buddh- 
ist Catechism," by Henry S. Olcott, of Ceylon. The first is a highly imagi- 
native and fanciful interpretation of Darwin's work. . . . The reader who 
appreciates a scientific style wrought into a poetic form will very likely 
find the little book curious and entertaining. — Morning Star (Dover, 
N.H.), July 23, 1885. 

The D^mon of Darwin. By the author of "Biogen." A book of 
sixty-four pages. The author soars entirely too high for the common 
mind. Evidently he is both an evolutionist and a transcendentalist. — 
American Christian Review, July 23, 1885. 



46 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 



Eloquence has gone out of fashion. The most beautifully rounded 
period is apt nowadays to excite a smile. ..." The Daemon of Darwin " 
forms No. 2 of the Biogen Series, and is described in the dedication 
by the biologist who prepared it as " anagogics veiling from the unwise 
the first principles of Biology." We regretfully find ourselves among the 
unwise, for whom the real meaning of the book has been elaborately and 
successfully veiled. — The Critic (New York), July, 1885. 

Prof. Elliott Coues, of Washington, is editing what he calls the Biogen 
Series, from the title of the first volume in it, which was " A Speculation on 
the Origin and Nature of Life." " The Daemon of Darwin " is the second 
number, " veiling " says the dedication, " from the universe \sic\ the first 
principle [sic] of biology." The illustrious author of the " Origin of 
Species " is taken in fancy to the under-world, to witness the transforma- 
tion of matter; and to the over-world to converse with Socrates. ... A 
primer of biology is far preferable for instruction or amusement to the veil 
of this farrago. — Literary World, July, 1885. 

The Daemon of Darwin. . . . When Prof. Elliott Coues put forth his 
well-known " Biogen : A Speculation on the Origin and Nature of Life," I 
had the pleasure, through these columns, of introducing that little work to 
English Spiritualists. It seemed to me to contain within its sixty-six 
pages of dainty quarto as much sense, insight, and instruction as I had 
found in many a more pretentious volume of ten times the size. I am glad 
to find that the publishers have arranged with Dr. Coues to bring out under 
his editorial direction a " series of concise essays on live questions of the 
day, or of historical research in religion, science, and philosophy, prepared 
by writers of the most eminent ability." There can be no question of the 
value and interest of such a series if the level of the first volume can be 
maintained. The second volume is also from the pen of Prof. Coues. It 
was originally prepared as a memorial address to be delivered from the 
Chair of Anatomy of the National Medical College at Washington, at the 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 47 

opening of the session, Oct. 2, 1882, and we have it without material alter- 
ation. It must have been, I cannot but think, with considerable surprise 
that the Professor's audience listened to this lively jeu d 'esprit, to what he 
himself calls " these anagogics veiling from the unwise the first principles 
of biology." In style as well as in matter, the address is as little like the 
dull and respectable orthodoxy of science as can well be conceived. — 
Rev. W. Stainton Moses in Light (London), Aug. 8, 1885. 

A Buddhist Catechism. . . . — The signs abound that of all the world's 
great creeds that one is destined to be the much-talked-of religion of the 
future which shall be found in least antagonism with nature and the natu- 
ral law. Who dare predict that Buddhism will not be the one chosen? — 
The Press (Philadelphia), Aug. 10, 1885. 

A Buddhist Catechism. — A most admirable exposition of the 
Buddhist faith ; clearer than any elaborate essay, and not only making it 
possible to understand exactly what Buddhism is, but leaving it impossible 
not to understand what it is. In the form of question and answer, every 
possible feature of the faith is brought up in turn, with a brevity, a clearness, 
and a conciseness which cannot be too highly commended. — The Critic 
(New York), Aug. 15, 1885. 

A Buddhist Catechism. — First American, from the fourteenth Ceylon- 
ese thousand. Edited, with an introduction and notes, by Prof. Coues. 
An authentic and authoritative exposition of Buddhistic religious and phil- 
osophical teachings. — Evening Traveller (Boston), Aug. 22, 1885. 

The Daemon of Darwin, by Elliott Coues. The Biogen Series, No. 
2. — As a tribute to Darwin, it will be read with delight by every lover of 
truth, by all who recognize, and are moved by, the grandeur of a life the 
inspiring motive of which was so noble. . . . The dramatic effect of Dar- 
win's reception among the shades of his peers, of his consignment to the 



.48 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 

regions below by his Nemesis, is as well managed as possible with such 
dramatis personce and such materials. But the ascent — hie labor, hoc 
opus est — up through the chain of being, by which Darwin is made to 
hoe through and experience what he taught, is the work of a master. — 
Book News, August, 1885. 

The D^mon of Darwin. ... — It would be impossible in fewer 
words, and to most writers in as few, to present so widely extended a view 
of the philosophy of life, and scenes attending its progress, as the author, 
Dr. Elliott Coues, gives on these pages. . . . Though written in the form 
of prose, it is imbued with the spirit of poetry, and will be found by every 
thoughtful, studious mind entertaining, instructive, and suggestive. — 
Banner of Light (Boston), August, 1885. 

The Biogen Series presents us with Nos. 2 and 3, the former being 
-"The Daemon of Darwin," by Coues, the latter, "A Buddhist Catechism," 
by Olcott. "What the Dceition is about, we know not. It is written in a 
style beyond human comprehension. — Bookseller, 1885. 

The Daemon of Darwin, by the author of " Biogen." — For those who 
have read " Biogen," the announcement on the title-page of this exqui- 
sitely made and printed book, that it is by the same author, should be 
sufficient to deter them from its perusal. ... If a man has got anything 
to say, why, in God's name, does he not say it, and not " veil it from the un- 
wise " in a symbolism that is as uninteresting as it is unintelligible? [That 
is for you to find out, my amiable Christian friend. — E. C.J — The Chris- 
tian Register (Boston), Aug. 28, 1885. 

A Buddhist Catechism. ... — But whatever judgment the thought- 
ful reader may pass on Buddhism, exoteric or esoteric, it is convenient to 
have that philosophy — for it declines to be called a religion — condensed 
into a compact, clear, and readable shape, and this Col. Olcott has done. 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 49 

The same exposition of Buddhist may be found elsewhere, but neither so 
lucidly nor so authoritatively expressed. The copious and weighty notes 
of Prof. Elliott Coues, one of America's distinguished men of science, and 
one of her most learned and eloquent writers, add value to the American 
edition. — LLOYD P. SMITH, in The American (Philadelphia), Aug. 29, 
1885. 

The writer of " The Daemon of Darwin" is the professor himself, and it 
consists of a composition which contains a preface, a first part, a second 
part, and a third part. . . . There is no reasoning in the whole. — New 
Jerusalem Magazine, August, 1885. 

A Buddhist Catechism. — Meant to feed the constantly growing appe- 
tite for mysticism and theurgy — the appetite which psychic research, 
ghostly romances, and the various forms of Neo-Platonism and Neo-Hege- 
lianism current from Concord to St. Louis are doing so much to stimulate. 
Dr. Coues's notes are copious on " adepts," " psychic aura," " phenomenal 
effects vulgarly called miracles," the distinctions between soul and spirit, 
and between personality and individuality. — The Dial (Chicago), August, 
1885. 

Dr. Coues is one of the foremost scientists in America. He is best 
known for his works on ornithology, being considered the standard author- 
ity in the United States on birds. He served for some time in the army, 
and pursued his investigations while stationed at the frontier forts. . . . 
In addition to his valuable scientific works, he is the author of a little pam- 
phlet entitled " Biogen," and his lecture, " The Daemon of Darwin," ex- 
cited considerable discussion. — The Post (Washington), May 13, 1886. 

London, June 17, 1886. 
As No. 5 of the Biogen Series, Prof. Coues has sprinted Robert 
Dodsley's " (^Economy of Human Life," which he considers is based on 



50 PUBLISHERS 1 DEPARTMENT. 

theosophical ethics. The history of this little treatise is rather curious. It 
was originally published in 1750, and purported to be by a Brahmin, but 
the authorship was generally attributed to Lord Chesterfield. . . . The 
association of the name " Kuthumi " with the book, so perplexing to 
understand, is not a biographical fact, as Prof. Coues explains in his " fore- 
word " (page 10). . . . Prof. Coues is deserving of praise for rescuing 
from oblivion a book in many ways calculated to do good. 

Mohini M. Chatterji. 

Kuthumi and Can Matter Think ? are the last two contributions to 
the Biogen Series; a series of essays edited by Prof. Elliott Coues, and 
dedicated to the discussion and demonstration of the existence of spirit and 
the certainty of a future life. " Can Matter Think? " is a contribution to 
the forces of anti-materialism. The timidity shown by the author, who 
conceals his name, is a hint to the scorners. We do not treat infidel, 
agnostic, or materialist with the same repressiveness that we do the spir- 
itualist and theosophist. Why is it? Because it is the very essence of 
bigotry to rather see one or many believe in no God at all than to believe 
in some other God than ours. It is for this reason that the author of an 
ingenious essay against materialism declines to confess his convictions by 
adding his name to his conclusions. ... In this little volume, as in 
" Kuthumi," the commentator, or rather editor, has brought distinguished 
ability in explanation and illustration. Both publications will interest 
those who are watching this new movement. ■ — The Critic (New York), 
Sept. 11, 1886. 

Kuthumi bears a close resemblance in doctrine and form of expressions 
to the philosophical as well as the evangelical books of the Bible. Under 
the title of " The (Economy of Human Life," it was published in London 
in 1770. The present edition shows by contrast pronounced superiority of 
appreciative spirit and editorial ability. Indeed, any one familiar with Dr. 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 5 1 



Coues's works . . . will understand the propriety of applying Dr. John- 
ston's Latin compliment on Goldsmith to one who writes with equal grace 
about the tail of a catbird and the possibilities of spiritual development. 

B. G. Lovejoy. 

The Biogen Series. — This series of publications is under the editorial 
management of Prof. Coues, the well-known scientist and theosophist. The 
series has just reached its fifth number, "Kuthumi; or, The CEconomy of 
Human Life." This is a reprint of a little volume originally issued in 1770, 
but, under the classical pen of Prof. Coues, who has added an introduction 
and the faultless typography of Estes & Lauriat, the little book is a very 
different affair from the earlier edition. No. 4 of the series, which is also 
only just out of press, bears the significant title, "Can Matter Think?" 
These little books are, in short, classics, and, as such, substantial additions 
to the literature of the age, while their bearing on the great problems of 
theosophy can hardly be overestimated. Prof. Coues's familiarity with the 
whole field of modern research, his exactness, which comes from scientific 
training, his remarkable command of first-class English, and his insight 
into the complex problems of psychology, place these books in the fore- 
front of theosophic literature. — J. D. Buck, in The Path, August, 18S6. 

Now, in these Lenten days, an opportunity is offered for improving one's 
mind, and even some of the society belles are reading the words of Orien- 
tal wisdom embodied in "Kuthumi; or, The True and Complete CEcon- 
omy of Human Life," the last of the Biogen Series, which is edited by Dr. 
Coues, of this city. Even the venerated Thomas a Kempis may give pre- 
cedence to the delightful proverbs and pearls of religious thought in 
"Kuthumi." . . . It was published in 1770 in two different books, which 
have now been combined in one, and carefully edited by Dr. Elliott Coues, 
for the enlightenment of the present generation. — The Old Colony Me- 
morial (Plymouth), March 10, 1887. 



52 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 



A Woman in the Case. — Prof. Elliott Coues . . . has declared 
himself in a way that has given a terrible shock to the Faculty of the Na- 
tional Medical College, where he has lectured on Anatomy during the past 
ten years. The National Medical College is the medical department of the 
Columbian University. What shocked the Faculty, and the Trustees as well, 
was the address which the Professor delivered to about 1,500 ladies and 
gentlemen at the Congregational Church, on the occasion of the sixty-fifth 
•annual commencement of the National Medical College. That was on the 
16th of last month. The feature of the occasion was a woman gradu- 
ate, — the first woman graduate of the college. The Professor, an ardent 
advocate of the equality of the sexes, began his address by complimenting 
the Faculty on this advance, and inferred from the fact that they had been 
taking a lesson in theosophy, " on which subject," said he, " I will speak 
for the hour, at the hazard of fanning into flame every spark of smoulder- 
ing opposition to free-thinking and out-speaking there may be within reach 
of my breath." — The Post (Washington), April, 1887. 

A Woman in the Case. — (Special despatch to the Globe-Democrat. 
Washington, D. C, April 27.) — The resignation of Dr. Coues as lecturer 
on Anatomy in the National Medical College of this city has caused a great 
stir in professional and ecclesiastical circles. In an address delivered a 
few weeks since on the occasion of the sixty-fifth annual Commencement 
of the college, the doctor made a sharp attack upon the religious creeds of - 
the day. In advocating the rights of women to enter the paths of progress, 
the doctor declared that religious intolerance, scientific insolence, and 
social tyranny were the three great stumbling-blocks to woman's progress. 

Dr. Elliott Coues delivered, at the latest Commencement of the National 
Medical College, in Washington, an address which the Faculty refused to pub- 
lish. . . . It is called "A Woman in the Case." . . . No wonder the gentle- 
men of Columbian University were frightened, for it is not customary to 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 53 

speak one's mind in Commencement orations. One need not agree with 
Dr. Coues, but nobody will deny his learning, his courage, and his talent 
for rousing the sleepers. — The Beacon (Boston), May 14, 18S7. 

A Woman in the Case. — Prof. Elliott Coues was selected to deliver 
the address at the annual Commencement of the National Medical College, 
in Washington, March 16, 1887. It is usual, on such occasions, for the 
orator to please his audience with well-rounded periods, high-sounding, 
orotund, and ancient in style, if there lurks a thought in the phraseology 
which is framed to say nothing. Prof. Coues determined on an innovation, 
and the determination shook down the pillars of the college, and now it is 
an open question whether he or the part that is left is the college. . . . 
The address is a brave and noble protest against the shams and pretence of 
religion, which has been the tyrant over woman from the beginning of 
time, under one form or another. The medical profession is noted for 
scepticism and free-thought. If a college seeks to thrust out all free^ 
thinkers and rill the chairs with those who place creed first and scientific 
excellence second, it will soon lose its character and influence. As a mat- 
ter of policy, Prof. Coues might have been less plain, but, standing on the 
heights, his light gave no uncertain flash. He called the attention of the 
world, and what he said was so transparently true that none can dispute. 
Being right, he will prevail in the full measure of his Tightness. — Hud- 
son Tuttle, in Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago), May 21, 1887. 

A speech that has caused no little shaking among the dry bones of old 
prejudices. It was entitled " A Woman in the Case," and was delivered 
at the Commencement exercises of the National Medical College, in Wash- 
in ton, some weeks ago, by Prof. Elliott Coues, who has occupied the chair 
of anatomy in the institution for ten years. For the first time in the his- 
tory' of the college a woman had been permitted to graduate, and that 
circumstance was taken as the text of the address, which was full of strong 



54 PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 

argument, biting sarcasm, and incontrovertible facts. . . . Talk like this, 
coming from one of the most brilliant members of the Faculty, a man noted 
for the truth and accuracy of his scientific investigations, the writer of 
books eloquent in style and valuable in matter, could not fail to arouse a 
whirlwind of comment and criticism. The Faculty was shocked off its base, 
and refused to follow the long-established custom of publishing the address. 
Prof. Coues resigned his position, and published it himself, saying he could 
not hesitate to put on public record what he had not hesitated to say in 
public. The earthquake caused by the affair has not ceased its rumblings 
yet. — The Toledo Blade, June 25, 18S7. 

His address before the National Medical College, at Washington, in 
March of this year, entitled " A Woman in the Case," and which was thi 
cause of a vast commotion among the conservative and routine professors, 
is a splendid example of Dr. Coues's work and thought in theosophy. The, 
calm, confident courage of his convictions and the lucent language in 
which they are clothed render this little brochure highly interesting. — 
The Times (Chicago), July 3, 1887; The Indian Mirror (Madras, India), 
Sept. 2, 1887. 

A Woman in the Case. — Washington is the paradise of scientists, 
•where the Smithsonian Institution and the large number of men in the 
scientific bureaus of the government form a very agreeable and cultivated 
circle. Now Prof. Coues, who is a very bright man, had an excellent 
standing among them, and was one of the lecturers before the Columbian 
University. This institution is practically in the hands of the Baptists. 
Imagine, therefore, the holy horror that broke forth when, two or three 
years ago, in one of his lectures, Prof. Coues delivered a regular theosophic 
address from his professor's chair. The university people went off into a 
state of catalepsy, the scientific men were struck all of a heap, and the 
laity nearly died laughing at all the parties concerned." — Hartford Cou- 
rant, Nov. 23, 1889. 



LB M : iO 




"Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. » 

^afior^af ©Oman's Cj^isfiar? (Eemperancc TtlnioT2- 

Peadquarters 161 ha Salle St., 

CHICAGO. 

Pres't, Frances E. Willard. 

Cor. Secy, Caroline B. Buell. 

Rec. Secy, Mary A. Woodbridge. 

Ass-T Rcc. Secy, L. M. N. Stevens. 
Treas., Esther Pugh. 

PRESIDENT'S OFFICE. 

D1 ?<*>&%,§& go R oo,. PR , VATe SE c RETARY . $«af*&n, d>//., De C ' 19 < **40. 

Alice E. B R iggs, Office Secretary. ^y ' 

Prof. "Riiiot Cones, 

Kind friend: - 

The case you have made 
out for women cannot be set aside, ana the chiv- 
alry of justice manifested by you must win ever: 
woman • s gratiifiipe • 

"fiver yours sincerely, 



V) A 



r\ 



LB M ; 10 






"THE BIOGEN SERIES," No. 6 



"A Woman in the Case 



?9 



Jul &MX£$S 



DELIVERED AT THE ANNUAL COMMENCEMENT OF THE NATIONAL 

MEDICAL COLLEGE, IN THE CONGREGATIONAL 

CHURCH OF WASHINGTON 



ZM^ZROIH: 16, 1887 

By ELLIOTT COUES 



